Is ripping apart the Marine Corps a distraction that hides 3rd Marine Division's plan to fight the Chinese navy from outposts on Taiwan?
Western Pacific Marines prepare to sink ships:
Marines with 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division have an expanded arsenal. This week the regiment received the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, also known as the NMESIS weapons system.
Beyond the ominous name, the NMESIS is designed to boost the Marine Corps’ anti-ship capabilities, particularly for potential conflicts in the Pacific theater, where Marine units would be expected to deploy to several islands throughout the ocean.
The weapon only has a range of 115 miles. This seems like a fatal flaw in the regiment.
But what if the plan is to put the unit on Taiwan and we just can't say that part out loud? That anti-ship missile's range which seems so small in the vast Pacific theater is enough in the narrow Taiwan Strait, no?
This doesn't reverse my criticism of Force Design. Indeed, even if hiding its intended mission is the purpose of FD, it makes ripping apart 3rd Marine Division and crippling the rest of the Marine Corps for one task within INDOPACOM seem even more ridiculous. That change would be done for defending one island. A large and important island, but still only one.
Especially when the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command could have been assigned the anti-ship job and prevented the neutering of the ground combat capability of the Marine Corps.
That issue has been a major worry of mine, in general. But I thought perhaps resupply to Taiwan would be more plausible. Perhaps even that is too optimistic.
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