Force Design has changed Marines from close quarter infantry to Navy anti-ship auxiliaries and now to Air Force pilots with spiffier dress uniforms. What could possibly go wrong?
If I seem like I'm weeping after reading this article, please don't take away my Man Card:
“One of our mantras, kind of bumper stickers, which has real meaning for us culturally as a service, is sort of ‘every Marine [a] rifleman,'” Watson said. Now, “the idea [is] that any Marine, using a precision weapon, can kill somebody who needs killing at ranges up to 500 meters.”
“You think about that, and that’s still important, right, being able to achieve combat overmatch at that echelon,” he added. “But now, if you use technology, that same Marine can be just as lethal at ranges out to 15 to 20 kilometers and beyond.”
Great. Now Marines can fly over enemies and drop explosives on them from the low "brown skies" just like Air Force pilots to high up in the "blue skies". Or like Marine pilots who lost their close air support jobs because Marines are now controlling small unmanned planes instead of closing with and destroying the enemy with direct fire and maneuver.
But combat overmatch up close and personal is "still important" notwithstanding these small drone operators! Just without the tanks, tube artillery, and engineering assets needed to provide overmatch and stand on the contested ground.
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NOTE: Photo from the article.
