1. A Marine Corps that is immediately ready to respond to crises and contingencies anywhere in the world. China is the most dangerous threat but not the most likely threat. We will remain the Nation’s 9-1-1 force for global employment.

2. A Marine Corps that is relevant, manned, and equipped to support the Secretary of Defense’s requirements with scalable, flexible, adaptive, and lethal forces. The combatant commanders (CCDRs) must be able to employ Marines as “rheostats,” forces of combined arms that can be enlarged or reduced as necessary to deter aggression or respond to hostilities. MAGTFs tailored to specific operations and missions provide CCDRs with flexible, adaptable, and lethal forces that are task organized and sustainable for operations across the spectrum of conflict. Marines will retain the capabilities to operate independently or as part of a joint or combined force.

3. A Marine Corps that is capable of fighting and winning in any conflict. Marines will retain the capabilities to task organize balanced air, ground, and logistics teams under an operational command element able to respond to the full range of crises and contingencies, everything from humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to sustained land combat against a peer competitor.

4. A Marine Corps that has the capacity to rapidly converge and build to a Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF). Marines have historically arrived on scene quickly and in echelons that can operate separately or rapidly build to a corps-size MEF. Usually first to arrive, a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) can be quickly scaled to a force significantly larger by landing additional MEUs, Air Alert Forces, the Fly-In Echelon of a Maritime Prepositioning Ship (MPS), Marine Expeditionary Brigade(s) (MEB), the arrival of all or part of one or multiple MPS squadrons, and the arrival of follow-on forces. Every MAGTF (MEU, MEB, MEF) has an operational command element that can be joined and connected to the higher headquarters. Each of the separate parts can be drawn upon as separate units or are capable of conjoining to form larger units. Just as important, the units can operate separately or composite in an expeditionary environment.

Expeditionary airfields, vertical short takeoff and landing (VSTOL) aircraft, and task-organized logistics organizations are just some of the capabilities that enable Marine units to function in austere environments. The MEF command element will provide direction for how the various components come together to function seamlessly and effectively. Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm (Saudi Arabia/Kuwait 1990-1991), Eastern Exit (Somalia 1991), Provide Comfort (Turkey and Iraq 1991), Sea Angel (Bangladesh 1991), Restore Hope (Somalia 1992-1993), and Task Force-58 (Operation Enduring Freedom, 2001-2002) proved the concept. The demand for large, scalable Marine Corps forces grew in the major war plans in Korea, Central Command, and European Command. 

An indispensable component of all four of these pillars is rapid deployment and sustainment, made possible by a robust fleet of amphibious ships, strategically positioned maritime prepositioning squadrons, and air alert battalions. Forward-deployed Marine Expeditionary Units and on-call air alert battalions must be immediately available to support all combatant commanders, not just some combatant commanders. Additional amphibious shipping must also be available to support larger amphibious formations that are required to respond to emerging requirements in multiple theaters or satisfy multiple combatant and sub-unified commanders' deliberate planning requirements. A properly configured and strategically based Maritime Prepositioning Force, comprised of independently deployable squadrons, is also required to support the immediate deployment and employment of MAGTFs that are tailored to support emerging or known requirements. The number of amphibious ships and maritime prepositioning squadrons must be driven by the requirements, not by budgeting considerations, which are always decided by Congress. 

Enabling Capabilities

To remain ready, relevant, and capable, Marine Corps forces must be enabled by capabilities that allow them to respond quickly, maneuver freely, and persist in friendly as well as hostile environments. These enabling capabilities are:

1. Engagement. Engagement reassures our friends and allies. It builds trust and interoperability while increasing partner capability and capacity. It promotes deterrence, provides access, and facilitates the transition of U.S. and coalition partners to hostilities, if necessary.

2. Forward Presence. Forward presence also promotes deterrence and shortens the response time to developing crises and contingencies. Marines must retain the capability to forward deploy aboard U.S. Navy ships, to operate ashore indefinitely during rotational deployments to temporary or semi-permanent locations, and to excel during training, exercises, or other operations.

3. Forward Basing. Forward basing is a core component of deterrence. It facilitates rapid response to theater-specific threats. The forward basing of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) and Maritime Prepositioning Squadron Three in the Pacific is a recognition of the importance of the region to U.S. economic and security interests and a check on Chinese aggression in the region. It also demonstrates the U.S. commitment to our regional friends and allies and demonstrates our willingness to fight and, if deterrence fails, win.

4. Crisis Response. Crises cannot be left to fester. U.S. Marines must remain capable of responding quickly and decisively to the full range of emerging crises and contingencies, everything from Noncombatant Evacuation Operations (NEO) and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief to sustained combat operations ashore. Forward basing and forward deployment of expeditionary Marine forces, such as MEUs and Special Purpose MAGTFs, are essential components of Crisis Response. The capabilities that the Marine Corps has traditionally brought to the table are flexible and adaptable.

5. Power Projection. The capability to project power is a fundamental component of maneuver and the offensive. Marines must remain capable of expeditionary forcible entry with Marine Expeditionary Brigades/Forces (MEB/MEF) to gain and maintain access and to conduct sustained operations ashore in support of CCDR requirements.   

6. Sustainment. The capability to sustain the force is an essential component of crisis response and power projection. An old military adage is, “amateurs talk tactics while professionals talk logistics.” Marine forces must retain the full range of maintenance and logistics support necessary for expeditionary operations, including robust and readily available maritime and land-based prepositioning.

7. Technology. Technology will continue to change and evolve. Every capability will sooner or later be rendered ineffective or obsolete by a counter-capability. The Marine Corps must continue to leverage technological advances and innovative procurement strategies that make the operating forces more adaptive, maneuverable, lethal, and survivable

Enduring Requirements and Capabilities

Enduring requirements are a set of capabilities and values that define U.S. Marines. They are unassailable. We must continue to embody the characteristics and attributes that make us different. These enduring requirements include:

1. Compliance with Title X United States Code (USC), Goldwater-Nichols, and Congressional Intent. Title X mandates that the Marine Corps be organized with not less than three combat divisions and three aircraft wings—a force of combined arms capable of conducting amphibious operations and subsequent land operations in support of U.S. national interests. We will retain our air-ground-logistics combined arms approach to warfighting and our naval character. Our reserve establishment will be a reservoir of the most essential and high-demand combat capabilities, not necessarily a mirror image of active forces. Goldwater-Nichols established independent Service components to support the functional and combatant commanders. Service componency is the Marine Corps’ “plug” into CCDR requirements. We will retain our Service independence and provide properly manned and equipped Service component headquarters to furnish operational-level support to all functional and combatant commanders. When tasked, the Marine Corps will be capable of serving as a Joint Task Force Headquarters or Functional Component Command. Finally, we will continue to fulfill the Congressional Intent that the Marine Corps be most ready when the Nation is least ready. Few Americans remember it, but when the North Koreans invaded the south in June 1950, the nation’s military had been drastically cut from its wartime high in 1945 to disastrously low levels. The President and the Congress believed that the next war, if there ever was one, would be nuclear and ground forces would be extraneous. The North Korean ground invasion was a nasty wake-up call. Although greatly reduced, the Marine Corps had kept its powder dry. Its equipment was well maintained, and its Reserves were well-trained and ready. Within a month, it had an air-ground-logistics combined arms task force embarking to become the fire brigade that was crucial to stopping the North Koreans at the Pusan perimeter. By September, it had a division ready to go on the offensive on the beaches at Inchon. That was truly a 9-1-1 force.

2. Remain the Nation’s Premier Expeditionary Force-in-Readiness. We will remain capable of deploying, persisting, and fighting in austere environments. Being expeditionary is more than combat organizations and equipment. It is a mindset that allows U.S. Marines to function and persevere under harsh extremes in climate and terrain and endure deprivation.

3. Remain a Versatile Force. The Marine Corps will remain capable of independent operations, special operations, and joint and combined operations. Our approach of task-organizing for the mission, coupled with our expeditionary capabilities and outlook, will allow Marine forces to operate globally in support of all emerging or ongoing requirements.