[4Rules]

The Pentagon intends to arm its Marines with versions of the Tomahawk cruise missile now carried on U.S. warships. And, in a radical shift in tactics, the Marines will join forces with the U.S. Navy in attacking an enemy's warships. Small and mobile units of U.S. Marines armed with anti-ship missiles will become ship killers. In a conflict, these units will be dispersed at key points in the Western Pacific and along the so-called first island chain, commanders said. The first island chain is the string of islands that run from the Japanese archipelago, through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China's coastal seas. Top U.S. military commanders explained the new tactics to Congress in March in a series of budget hearings. The commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, General David Berger, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 5 that small units of Marines armed with precision missiles could assist the U.S. Navy to gain control of the seas, particularly in the Western Pacific. "The Tomahawk missile is one of the tools that is going to allow us to do that," he said. "The Americans are coming back strongly," said Ross Babbage, a former senior Australian government defense official and now a non-resident fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a security research group. "By 2024 or 2025 there is a serious risk for the PLA that their military developments will be obsolete."
https://www.unionleader.com/news/mi...cle_4b72eda6-2e71-54a5-af42-8566d2afb040.html

 

[WT]

The USMC is reinventing the old Coast Artillery.

Gen. Berger said he was going to eliminate most of the cannon artillery batteries and add more rocket artillery. Probably a smart move.

There are about 8 exits from the South China Sea. A couple battalions of rocket artillery should be able to block them if needed.

 

[bdcochran]

Shades of pt boats/swift boats/Iranian swarm boats. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Cannon artillery vs. rocket artillery - Soviet using rocket artillery during WW2. The counter measure was simple for German troops on the front line. When notice of an attack was received, the front line troops removed themselves to prepared bunkers a few hundred yards back.

 

[fastbolt]

Another twist on the Trade negotiations, huh?