Marine Corps Readiness for III MEF Success

While leading the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL), I saw firsthand how new technology can accelerate readiness. Therefore, I was glad to share my perspective on Marine Corps readiness along with Brigadier General Simon Doran, the current MCWL leader, at the 2024 Defense News Conference sponsored by Booz Allen. We discussed the urgency to outpace U.S. adversaries through Marine Corps technologies aligned to system-integrated accelerated readiness, built on AI-powered and autonomous solutions. 

Marine Corps readiness will support the III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) mission, especially in a potential Indo-Pacific conflict—one in which contested logistics would complicate an island-hopping campaign reliant on smaller Marine units’ autonomy. Below are three keys to III MEF mission success. 

III MEF mission success starts at the warfighter level, with Marines’ accelerated readiness for a contested logistics environment that the pacing threat continually amplifies. At the MCWL, Marines master the mission through physical fitness—repetition (reps) and sets—and technologies focused on wargaming, modeling, and simulations. Accelerated technology, such as drones, robotics, and AI, are all essential to support Marines in reducing readiness timelines and uncertainty during missions. 

System integration is essential to accelerate readiness. Open architecture that enables plug-and-play flexibility would remove the challenges of closed-loop, proprietary software that currently requires Marines to train on kit pieces separately. Through open architecture, new kit pieces would seamlessly integrate into existing Marine kits, enabling changeable warfighter payloads. 

My Marine Corps wish list is straightforward: amphibs, amphibs, amphibs. Ideally, the Navy/Marine Corps requirement is 12 Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA) ships with well decks and 26 Landing Platform Dock (LPD) ships. That would give us 12 Amphibious Ready Group/Marine Expeditionary Units (ARG/MEU). The Navy/Marine Corps must prioritize the Landing Ship Medium (LSM) ships and shore-to-shore mobility connectors to move Marines, weapon systems, food, and fuel in the littorals, the critical coastal shore zones.

The Marine Corps’ chief asset is the individual Marine, so technological innovations for contested logistics environments, like Booz Allen’s LOGWERX™, prioritize enhanced Marine survivability. Autonomous vessels enable safer navigation of risky resupply in contested logistics environments, for reloading in littorals without personnel physically present. An example of this is the Autonomous, Low-Profile Vessel (ALPV), a 55-foot-long ship that can travel thousands of miles and carry myriad cargo. In just 21 days, a Marine cook trained to operate an ALPV using proliferated low earth orbit technology, controlling the ALPV from the U.S. West Coast while it was in Japan.