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MODERN DAY MARINE 2023 — In the year and a half since the Marine Corps published its “Concept for Stand-In Forces,” senior leadership say the service’s reconnaissance capabilities, and particularly the need for a family of vehicles, is “getting the most attention.”
Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, the service’s top requirements officer, said on Wednesday during the Modern Day Marine exposition that the “Mobile Reconnaissance Battalion (MRB),” a new unit composition being developed and established this year as part of Force Design 2030, has become a focus point for his agency, Marine Corps Combat Development Command. (Force Design 2030 is the overarching plan the Marine Corps published in 2019 that revamps its technology, training, recruitment and other areas to make the service ready for a future fight.)
“What’s required from a Mobile Reconnaissance Battalion perspective? …Obviously, from Balikatan, we’ve learned a bunch of lessons,” he added, referencing the US Marine Corps’ recurring joint exercise with their counterparts in the Philippines. “We’re still ingesting that. I can’t recall a specific thing in a capabilities capacity… [but] the Mobile Reconnaissance Battalion is the one that is getting the most attention right now.”
And when it comes to reconnaissance, the Marines have realized they can’t rely on a single vehicle to implement the type of recon the service will need moving forward, Commandant Gen. David Berger told a crowd here on Tuesday.
Berger said the Marines didn’t know when asked if buying a family of vehicles would reduce the total number of Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicles the service purchases. But what the Marines do know is that having three separate units for ground, air and waterborne recon is no longer acceptable.
“How does that impact the vehicles? We don’t know yet. But it’s some combination of vessels, aircraft and vehicles… That’s what we have to sort out over the next couple of years,” he added. “But it’s not just one of them. It’s clear to us that capability has to be all three.”
Read more of Breaking Defense’s coverage of the Modern Day Marine exposition
Berger published the “Concept for Stand-In Forces” in December 2021 and in it described the need for small, “lethal” forces that can work at levels below combat to counter what’s often referred to as “gray zone” aggression from rivals like China.
Since then, Marine Corps leadership have described instances where they believe the fleet has begun utilizing the concept, such as during the early days of Russia’s war against Ukraine, where Marines training in Norway suddenly had an opportunity to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance near Russia’s border.
But what the commandant has stressed since that’s document’s publication, it is subject to change based on feedback. Comments from Heckl and Berger, who spoke to a crowd here on Tuesday, suggested the routine exercise with the Philippine Marine Corps was another chance to test the concept.
“They spread themselves across the Philippines, experimented with different concepts and different sets of… capabilities. Perfect. Real life, alongside the Philippine Marines in a realistic environment,” Berger said.
Lt. Gen. Edward Banta, the deputy commandant for installations and logistics, who was speaking alongside Heckl on Wednesday, added that through the changes in Force Design 2030 and the experimentation of the Stand-In Forces concept, the Marines also realized they had “shortfalls in the transportation capacity” of its combat logistics battalions.
“We also recognize that fundamental to Force Design and sustaining the stand-in forces is bringing the point of repair closer to the point of need,” he said. “Being able to take our organic industrial base capabilities… how do we bring that forward using whether it’s advanced manufacturing, leveraging host nation or partner capacity to be able to make those repairs closer” to where the force is stationed.
Separate from the MRB’s development, the Marine Corps is actively considering prototypes from General Dynamics Land Systems and Textron Systems for its future Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle, a program worth up to $7 billion.
Spokespeople for both companies told Breaking Defense last week the Marine Corps executed a contract option to continue testing their prototypes for another six months, concluding in October, a development confirmed by a Marine Corps spokesperson.
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