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Articles by Will McGee
U.S. Ports Need a Cyber Insurance Backstop
1. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and National Security Agency, “PRC State-Sponsored Actors Compromise and Maintain Persistent Access to U.S. Critical Infrastructure,” Cybersecurity Advisory AA24-038A, 7 February 2024. 2.
How Reservists Can Jumpstart Military Software Development
Why is it that you can send money around the world in seconds with your phone, but a forward observer can’t use a secure application to connect with an artillery battery and call for fire? That’s because the past 30 years of technological innovation have largely left the military behind. The services don’t have a large-scale ability to create the technology required to compete on the modern battlefield. This is a problem. And the Marine Corps is no further ahead than the other services.
Use Social Media in Combat
From 31 December 2023 to early June 2024, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), along with several other ships from Carrier Strike Group 2 and coalition partners, engaged in combat against Houthi rebels in Yemen. These operations, aimed at degrading the rebels’ ability to target innocent civilian mariners, occurred in what many consider the most dangerous kinetic environment the U.S. Navy has experienced since World War II. Near-daily attacks went both ways in the fight, with the Dwight D.
Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the Marine Corps
Every day, thousands of marines perform routine data-collection tasks and make hundreds of data-based decisions. They compile manning data on whiteboards to decide to staff units, screenshot weather forecasts and paste them into weekly commander’s update briefings, and submit training entries by hand.
Data Brokers Are a Threat to National Security
Captain Arango is deputy staff judge advocate at Training and Education Command and currently working toward his LL.M. in national security and cybersecurity from the George Washington University School of Law. He has published commentary in the Wall Street Journal, SAIS Review for International Affairs, Marine Corps Gazette, and . The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy, Department of Defense, or U.S. government.
The ‘Agile’ Wargames that Can Test Force Design, Part 1
Editor’s note: This is the first of three articles discussing the utility of the unclassified wargame in the development of force design efforts. What will the next fight look like, and what changes must be made to compete and win? It is impossible to predict the future, but military planners must still anticipate the character of future conflict to position U.S. forces to best achieve the nation’s objectives.
Twitter Trackers Jeopardize Military Aircraft
A foreign adversary excitedly zooms in on the location of an RQ-4 Global Hawk operating over Eastern Europe. He screenshots the image on his phone and hurries back to the command suite. “Sir, the American drone is back.” The commander orders the acquisition radar to orient on the bearing indicated by the screenshot and quickly finds the target. Seconds later, a surface-to-air missile speeds toward the aircraft. The adversary’s high-value intelligence source in this scenario: Twitter.
Organic Precision Fires for Marine Infantry
In summer 2017, our position in Syria came under fire from Islamic State rockets. The enemy was outside the range of our 120-mm mortars, and the nature of our mission meant I could not displace our reinforced platoon. The nearest air support was more than 20 minutes away, meaning there were few options to respond immediately. We were in luck, however.
Littoral Combat Teams Need Light Infantry, Not Less
The Marine Corps continues to evolve to deter and, if necessary, defeat Chinese aggression in the Pacific. Force Design 2030 has placed a new emphasis on Marines as forward sensors for maritime and land-based fires. The service is creating littoral combat teams (LCTs) and the Marine littoral regiments (MLRs) to make this strategic step forward a reality.
Social Media Puts EABO at Risk
1. Col Art Corbett, USMC (Ret.), Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations Handbook: Considerations for Force Development and Employment, Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, Concepts & Plans Division, 1 June 2018, 11. This article primarily relies on the Handbook, as the original document describing expeditionary advanced bases.
Modern Vehicles Present Unique Threats and Vulnerabilities to the Military
The hackers watched the ship’s captain through dozens of vehicle cameras. They used the zero-day exploit in her car’s infotainment system to access applications on her personal phone, viewing her calendar and emails. The same exploit allowed them to access her government-issued cell phone as well and read through emails with sensitive unclassified information.
NMESIS Now
The Marine Corps must carefully consider how it will integrate its new weapon system to maximize its potential. By First Lieutenant James Winnefeld, U.S. Marine Corps The Marine Corps is about to field perhaps the most capable weapon system—apart from the rifleman—it has ever seen.
Unmanned Vessels for EABO
1. Gen David H. Berger, Commandant’s Planning Guidance (Washington, DC: Headquarters Marine Corps), 16 July 2019. 2. Capt Walker Mills, USMC, and Erik Limpaecher, “Sustainment Will Be Contested,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 146, no. 11 (November 2020). 3. Maj Scott Cuomo, USMC, and Billy Birdzell, “Submarine Stormtroops,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 138, no. 11 (November 2012). 4.
The Marine Corps’ Dangerous Shift to Defense
1. Gen David H. Berger, USMC, Force Design 2030 (Washington, DC: Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps, 2020): 2; Gen David H. Berger, USMC, “The Case for Change: Meeting the Principal Challenges Facing the Corps,” Marine Corps Gazette, June 2020, 8–10. 2. Art Corbett, Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) Handbook: Considerations for Force Development and Employment (Quantico, VA: Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, Concepts & Plans Division, 1 June 2018), 23, 19, 6, 13. 3.
Let the Coast Guard Show Its Stripes
In early 2021, China passed a new law allowing the its coast guard to board, inspect, and even fire on foreign vessels. This shift added to the growing regional concern over China’s employment of its coast guard, which has played an increasing role in what are traditionally considered “navy” operations, some noting that “the only difference is the color scheme” of the ships’ hulls. If this sounds familiar to those acquainted with recent U.S. Coast Guard operations, it should.
Improve Cybersecurity for Information System Defense
In 2015, Chinese hackers scooped up millions of personnel files and security clearance records from Office of Personnel Management (OPM) databases. OPM’s lax security practices, specifically its failure to implement industry-standard security measures such as two-factor authentication, allowed Chinese security services hackers easy access to a treasure trove of sensitive data. This is not an isolated incident. Over the past decade, headlines announcing major data leaks have become common.
Time for a Staff Officer Career Track
Officer development in the Marine Corps largely is focused on preparing Marines for command, and promotion hinges chiefly on an officer’s potential as a commanding officer. But only a small minority of officers are in command at any given time. Even fewer are destined to command battalion-sized or larger units. On the other hand, most officers will serve on staffs for much of their careers, and good staff officers are rare and valuable.
Marine Armor is Outclassed by China
By First Lieutenant Karl Flynn, U.S. Marine Corps The Marine Corps has retired its entire tank force and will rely on the Army for heavy armored support. The People’s Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps (PLANMC) has taken the opposite approach. Aside from fielding its own main battle tanks, the PLANMC also uses amphibious tanks alongside a litany of other armored fighting vehicles.
Testing Force Design
Should the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory test and validate ideas it originated? General David H. Berger issued the Commandant’s Planning Guidance (CPG) in July 2019, outlining his plan to transform the Marine Corps to fight peer adversaries.
Testing Force Design
General David H. Berger issued the Commandant’s Planning Guidance(CPG) in July 2019, outlining his plan to transform the Marine Corps to fight peer adversaries. The CPG identified force design as the top priority for the service, and work on it began almost immediately.1 A small planning team met to provide direction for follow-on efforts, work that entered its second phase in September 2019, when this team transferred responsibility to the office of Lieutenant General Eric M.
Designing Tomorrow’s Marine Corps
1. Michael Howard, “Military Science in an Age of Peace,” Journal of the Royal United Services Institute 119, no. 1 (March 1974): 4. 2. Gen David H. Berger, USMC, Force Design 2030 (Quantico, VA: U.S. Marine Corps, March 2020). 3. Mark Cancian, “The Marine Corps’ Radical Shift toward China,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, 25 March 2020; Gen Anthony Zinni, USMC (Ret.), quoted in Michael Gordon, “Marines Plan to Retool to Meet China Threat,” Wall Street Journal, 23 March 2020, 1. 4.
The Accidental Marine Corps Commander
What kind of commander does the Marine Corps want? The significance of this question cannot be overstated. Officers selected for O-5 command have immediate and career-long effects on the hundreds of Marines in their units, consequently impacting the quality of the force for years after command is relinquished. More critical, these battalion and squadron commanders are personally charged with building the warfighting capability and combat readiness of Marine Corps forces deployed across the globe.
Forgetting Victor Krulak
From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, the U.S. Marine Corps has valiantly and reliably served and protected the nation and its interests for more than 240 years. “Americans will always want a force that looks the enemy in the eye,” wrote John Fannin in the Marine Corps Times. One “who can see the bared teeth and the ferocity of our worst enemy and deliver the fight to that enemy.” The Marines have always been that force.
Race and Gender Blind Marine Corps Boards
The purpose of the Marine Corps' promotion system is to select the “best and fully qualified” individuals for promotion and command. Marines are expected to perform in every position and then are selected, based on this performance, by an anonymous board of officers for promotion to the next rank, education programs, and the opportunity to command operational units.
The Exercise Has No Clothes | RealClearDefense
Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and annexed hundreds of thousands of square miles of territory in eastern Ukraine in 2014 using unconventional forces—including special operations units, unidentified conventional forces, and criminal elements—that could not be definitively tied to the government or military. The Marine Corps' major staff exercises in use today do not train staff or leaders to face events such as these.
The Exercise Has No Clothes
In the real world, intelligence analysts have access to a vast array of classified and open-source information about states, nonstate actors, and key individuals. Think-tank studies and intelligence reports provide political, economic, cultural, and geographic context for the operating environment. Detailed summaries of threat capabilities and doctrine allow analysts to understand fully an adversary’s system.
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