The 44-page 2025 Marine Corps Aviation Plan, released earlier this week by Lt. Gen. Bradford Gering, Deputy Commandant for Aviation, gives lots of insight into how the Corps intends to move forward with preserving its legacy MAGTF model that has been a thing since 1963 despite deep cuts to field the Marine Littoral Regiments of (supposedly) highly mobile anti-ship missile slingers.
The way of the future:
U.S. Marines and Sailors with 3d Littoral Combat Team, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division, pose for a unit photo before a ceremony on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Nov. 26, 2024. At the ceremony, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division officially received the Navy/Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) from Marine Corps Systems Command, becoming the first U.S. Marine Corps unit to field the system. (U.S. Marine Corps photo illustration by Sgt. Jacqueline C. Parsons) (This image was created using photo merging techniques.)
Out are the last 39 AV-8B Harriers, set to leave the force by 2027 while plans to sunset the elderly Charlie and Delta F-18s are on hold until FY30 ish (the Navy already ditched the type in 2019 in favor of the Rhino Super Hornets, with even the Angels converting over).
The Harrier line closed in 2003 while the F-18C/D line ended in 2000. For what it’s worth, Boeing plans to halt all Super Hornet (E/F) production in 2027 when the last 17 on the order books are delivered to the Navy.
In are more carrier-optimized F-35Cs at the expense of STOVL F-35Bs. This will allow the Corps to field four more squadrons (eight total) for likely inclusion in Navy CVN-based air wings than what was originally planned. I wouldn’t be surprised if a ninth squadron gets moved to that in the near future, which would be one per active CVW.
The Marine Tactical Air transition plan (click to big up):
Takeaways:
“At the end of 2025, 183 F-35B and 52 F-35C aircraft will have been delivered to the Marine Corps. While the program of record (420 total F-35 aircraft) has not changed, we have updated our F-35 procurement profile to reflect an increase in F-35C squadrons. Per the TACAIR Transition plan, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232 (VMFA) and VMFA-323, VMFA-112, and VMFA-134 will now transition as F-35C squadrons. The program of record now includes 280 F-35Bs and 140 F-35Cs to support 12 F-35B squadrons and 8 F-35C squadrons.”
Tsushima Strait, (Sept. 18, 2024) A U.S Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 225, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, takes off from the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) in the Tsushima Strait, Sept. 18, 2024, for a defensive counterair mission. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joseph Helms)
“The Marine Corps F/A-18 inventory includes 161 F/A-18C/D aircraft. FMF will maintain four active squadrons and one reserve squadron through the end of FY25. F/A-18C/D structure requirements remain in place until the end of FY29 then will transition to F-35s by FY30/31.”
“Of the two Harrier squadrons, Marine Attack Squadron 231 (VMA) will sundown in late FY25, VMA-223 will sundown in late FY26, and both squadrons will transition to F-35B.”
U.S. Sailors and Marines conduct preflight checks on U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers with the Aviation Combat Element, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) in the Atlantic Ocean, June 27, 2022. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Armando Elizalde)
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Warship Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025: Gallant Gussi
U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.7161.010
Above we see a Vought F4U-1D Corsair of Marine Fighting Squadron (Carrier Squadron) (VMF(CVS)) 512 as it prepares to catapult on deck qualifications from the brand new Commencement Bay-class escort carrier USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107)during the flattop’s shakedown cruise off San Diego, on or about 6 March 1945.
Commissioned 80 years ago today, she was one of just six carriers earmarked to carry embarked dedicated all-Marine air groups during WWII, then would go on to continue to serve in a much different role into the Vietnam era.
The Commencement Bays
Of the 130 U.S./RN escort carriers– merchant ships hulls given a hangar, magazine, and flight deck– built during WWII, the late-war Commencement Bay class was by far the Cadillac of the design slope. Using lessons learned from the earlier Long Island, Avenger, Sangamon, Bogue, and Casablanca-class ships.
Like the hard-hitting Sangamon class, they were based on Maritime Commission T3 class tanker hulls (which they shared with the roomy replenishment oilers of the Chiwawa, Cimarron, and Ashtabula classes). From the keel up, these were made into flattops.
Pushing some 25,000 tons at full load, they could make 19 knots, which was faster than a lot of submarines looking to plug them. A decent suite of about 60 AAA guns spread across 5-inch, 40mm, and 20mm fittings could put as much flying lead in the air as a light cruiser of the day when enemy aircraft came calling.
Finally, they could carry a 30-40 aircraft airwing of single-engine fighter bombers and torpedo planes ready for a fight, or about twice that many planes if being used as a delivery ship.
Sounds good, right?
Of course, had the war run into 1946-47, the 33 planned vessels of the Commencement Bay class would have no doubt fought kamikazes, midget subs, and suicide boats tooth and nail just off the coast of the Japanese Home Islands.
However, the war ended in Sept. 1945 with only nine of the class barely in commission– most of those still on shake-down cruises. Just two, Block Island and Gilbert Islands, saw significant combat at Okinawa and Balikpapan, winning two and three battle stars, respectively. Kula Gulf and Cape Gloucester picked up a single battle star.
With the war over, some of the class, such as USS Rabaul and USS Tinian, though complete, were never commissioned and simply laid up in mothballs, never being brought to life. Four other ships were canceled before launching, just after the bomb on Nagasaki was dropped. In all, just 19 of the planned 33 were commissioned.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Meet Gilbert Islands
Our subject is the only American warship named for the sprawling August 1942-December 1943 Gilbert Islands campaign– Operations Galvanic and Kourbash– that included the seizures of Tarawa and Makin and the hard-fought Battle of Tarawa.
The Battle of Tarawa (US code name Operation Galvanic) was one of the bloodiest of the Pacific T/O during WWII. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fighting, mostly on and around the small island of Betio. Many have never been recovered.
Laid down on 29 November 1943 at Tacoma, by Todd-Pacific Shipyards, CVE-107 was initially to be named USS St. Andrews Bay-– for a bay on the Gulf Coast of Florida and a sound on the southern coast of Georgia– but this changed when she was set to be renamed Gilbert Islands on 26 April 1944. She launched on 20 July 1944 under the latter name, sponsored by Mrs. Edwin D. McCorries, wife of a surgeon captain at Puget Sound Navy Hospital. The carrier was the 57th Navy ship launched at Todd, and the third of her class of carriers christened there.
She was commissioned on 5 February 1945, her company numbering 66 officers and 755 enlisted, about half of which (27 officers, 350 men) had sailed for two weeks on USS Casablanca (CVE-55) in the Puget Sound area as part of a CVE Pre-Commissioning School, with the command and senior petty officers spent another five days at sea on sister USS Block Island.
USS Gilbert Islands from her commissioning booklet Feb 1945. Via Navsource
Her first skipper was Capt. Lester Kimme Rice, a regular Navy aviator (USNA ’24) with 20 years under his belt that included operations officer of PATWING7 (1941-42) and commanding the Barnegat-class seaplane tender USS Matagorda (AVP 22) during the worst days (1942-43) of the Battle of the Atlantic.
After commissioning, our new carrier spent a week in Tacoma fitting out, then another week steaming around assorted Naval bases in the Puget Sound area, taking on supplies, ammunition, aviation ordnance, and getting depermed and degaussed. Setting out of San Diego on 20 February– with a stop at San Francisco– she arrived there on the 27th.
Now we need an air group.
WWII Marine Carrier Groups
Without getting too far into the weeds here, Gen. Alexander Vandegrift, Commandant of the Marine Corps, successfully campaigned during discussions with the CNO during an August 1944 conference at Pearl Harbor, to get Marine aircraft squadrons on carriers– ideally on ships dedicated to air support over Marine beachheads.
On 21 October 1944, under Order No. 89-44, Marine Carrier Groups, Aircraft, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific (FMFPac) was established as a tactical command at MCAS Santa Barbara under Col. Albert D. Cooley.
Originally formed as Marine Base Defense Aircraft Group 48 (MBDAG-48) at Santa Barbara and Marine Aircraft Group 51 (MAG-51) at Mojave, by early November, they had 406 officers and 2,743 enlisted assigned, along with a motley collection of 63 aircraft in nine types.
Of note, the four new Corsair squadrons of MAG-51 (VMF-511, 512, 513, and 514) had previously been training on the East Coast as part of Project Danny for Crossbow strikes on German V-1/V-2 rocket launching sites in Europe using massive underwing 10.5-foot “Tiny Tim” rockets, a mission scrubbed before the Devils got a chance to clock in.
While about 15 percent of the Marine aviators in the command had combat experience in the Pacific, few had ever landed on a carrier, so the ramp-up had to be fast.
This led to four initial Marine Air Groups (eight planned), each ideally with an 18-plane fighter squadron and a 12-aircraft torpedo bomber squadron, designed for operation from escort carriers:
By the end of December– just 75 days after founding– the Marine Carrier Groups had tallied 17,218 hours across 13,257 flights in the desert, rising and landing in approximated carrier flight deck outlines, and the number of aircraft on hand rose over 150, concentrating on Corsairs and Avengers while personnel climbed over 3,700.
The first flattop to pick up a Marine Air Group (MCVG-1) was Block Island on 3 February 1945, which shipped out with a mix of 12 TBMs, 10 F4Us, 8 F6F Hellcat night fighters, and 2 F6F planes.
The second group would go tothe Gilbert Islands. Accordingly, Lt.Col. William R. Campbell’s MCVG-2 — made up of VMF(CVS)-512 with 13 FG-1Ds and five F4U-1Ds, VMTB(CVS)-143 with 10 TBM-3s and two TBM-3Es, and CASD-2 with two F6F-5P photo recon Hellcats– would embark on our carrier on 6 March at San Diego. The group would remain aboard through the end of the war except for brief periods ashore while the carrier was in shipyard maintenance.
The Rocket Raiders of VMTB(CVS)-143, had been formed in September 1942 and logged five major combat tours, primarily from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, before stateside carrier conversion training. VMF(CVS)-512, meanwhile, was newer, only formed in February 1944, and had never been overseas.
Four other “Marine” carriers that made it into service would be:
USS Vella Gulf (CVE-111), MCVG-3: VMF(CVS)-513, VMTB(CVS)-234, and CASD-3
USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109), MCVG-4: VMF(CVS)-351, VMTB(CVS)-132, and CASD-4
USS Salerno Bay (CVE-110) MCVG-5: VMF(CVS)-514, VMTB(CVS)-144, and CASD-5
USS Puget Sound (CVE-113), MCVG-6: VMF(CVS)-321, VMTB(CVS)-454, and CASD-6
Compare this to the 16 Navy Escort Carrier Air Groups (CVEGs) and 90 Escort Scouting Squadrons (VGS)/Composite Squadrons (VCs) that served on the Navy’s 70 other “baby flat-tops.”
War!
Following workups off California and Hawaii, on 25 May, the Gilbert Islands arrived off Okinawa as part of the Fifth Fleet and, joining Task Unit (TU) 52.1.1, sent up her first CAP and close air support strikes against Japanese targets.
Take a look at this hectic one-day air report, with MCVG-2 just going ham on targets of opportunity:
It was during these operations that VMF-512’s Capt. Thomas Liggett bagged a twin-engine Mitsubishi Ki. 46 Dinah reconnaissance plane– the only aerial victory for MAG Two and Gilbert Islands during the war.
The carrier also lost her first pilot around this time.
On 1 June, Gilbert Islands joined her sister Marine carrier Block Island in TU 32.1.3 under Third Fleet control, then got busy neutralizing enemy installations in the Sakishima Gunto area via liberal application of rockets, bombs, and .50 caliber rounds.
Goodyear FG 1D Corsair VMF-512 TBM Avengers FM Wildcats aboard 2nd Jun 1945
As detailed by her War History, just take a look at this 10-day period (including a three-day gap to run to Kerama Retto for more ordnance), keeping in mind that this was carried out by a group of just ~30 aircraft:
Sent to San Pedro Bay, Leyte, on 16 June for 10 days of rest, replenishment, and repairs, Gilbert Islands was then dispatched south as part of TG 78.4 along with Block Island to cover the landings of Australian and Free Dutch forces during Operation Oboe II at Balikpapan.
With the path cleared by UDT-18, 7th Division Australian troops come ashore from landing craft during a landing near Balikpapan oil fields in Borneo. Some 33,000-strong combined Australian and Royal Netherlands Indies amphibious forces (the largest ever amphibious assault by Australian forces)
It ended up being somewhat anti-climactic, although she did lose one of her F6F drivers, 1LT James Benjamin Crawford, to Japanese AAA fire.
Sent back to San Pedro Bay after the 4th of July– making sure to dip her pollywogs along the way– she spent the rest of the month there, briefly serving as the flag of Carrier Division 27.
During operations in the PI, her plane guard, the “Green Dragon” USS Lee Fox (APD-45),suffered a bow bender while transferring the ditched Capt. Leggett was back aboard on the morning of 25 July 1945.
Fox on Gilbert Islands. The crack-up carried away the carrier’s starboard boat boom and caused superficial damage, with no injuries on either ship.
Sailing to Ulithi Atoll at the end of July in company with the escort carrier USS Chenango, she attached to TG. 30.8, a third fleet service squadron, to provide them with air cover. It is with this group that on 10-15 August, Capt. Rice, as senior officer afloat, was given command of half the group, TU 30.8.2– the oilers USS Kankakee, Cahaba, Neosho, and Cache; the destroyer USS Wilkes and the escorts USS Willmart, Leray Wilson, Lyman, and William C. Miller; and four tugs, to get on the run from an approaching typhoon.
F4U-1D Corsair VMF-512 White 24 behind typhoon barrier, USS Gilbert Islands
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) in rough seas, circa 1945 NNAM 1996.488.253.1578
Vectoring in a big box, heading north at first, then southeasterly, then south and west, “The maneuver was successful, no heavy weather was encountered, and no damage was sustained by any of the vessels.”
By the time the storm was gone, the war was over, and the message that Japan had surrendered unconditionally was received at 0850 on 15 August 1945.
She then performed occupational duty. Sent to Okinawa with Carrier Division 27, she once again had to go to sea to dodge an incoming typhoon.
Carrier Division 27 successfully weathering China Sea Typhoon. Taken by USS Salerno Bay (CVE 110). Ships shown are: USS Block Island (CVE 106); USS Siboney (CVE 112) and USS Gilbert Island (CVE 107). 80-G-354604
Carrier Division 27 successfully weathering China Sea Typhoon. Taken by USS Salerno Bay (CVE 110). The ships shown are: the USS Block Island (CVE 106) and USS Gilbert Island (CVE 107). Photographed October 1945. 80-G-354600
CarDiv27, Gilbert Islands included, then appeared off Japanese-occupied Formosa on 15 October to have their planes as a “show of force” over the island and covering the landings of the Chinese KMT 70th Army at Kiirun on 16-17 October. “Observation over Formosa indicated enemy activity was non-existent.” She nonetheless spent a week off the island until the 20th, firing over 18,000 rounds of 20mm and 40mm ammunition in AAA drills while her planes expended 16 bombs and 32 5-inch rockets.
Dispatched to Saipan, she arrived there on the 23rd, then, with stops at Pearl Harbor and San Diego along the way, arrived at Norfolk on 7 February 1946. Her war was over, and the Marine Carrier Groups disbanded. She would decommission on 21 May and then would be mothballed, first in Norfolk and then in Philadelphia.
Of her sisters, all survived the war, and 15 of 18 (excepting Block Island, Sicily, and Mindoro) were all laid up following the conflict.
In the course of her career during World War II, Gilbert Islands received three battle stars.
Cold War recall
With the Korean War kicking off in June 1950, following a round of inspection among the mothballed CVEs, Gilbert Islands were selected and recommissioned on 7 September 1951 at Philadelphia. She was not alone, as nine of her sisters were also reactivated.
Following six months of overhaul at Boston Naval Yard while her new crew was pieced together, her first assignment was to head back to the Pacific and, carrying a jam-packed load of USAF F-86E Sabre fighters to Yokoyama from 8 August to 22 October 1952, she arrived back with the Atlantic Fleet, based at NS Quonset Point, and would operate the big AF-2 Guardian ASW aircraft.
AF Guardian on the deck of USS Gilbert Island (CVE-107) during ASW near Rhode Island, 1953-1954
Tasked with ASW carrier training duties, she carried VS-24’s AF-2Ws and AF-2Ss along with a flight of HRS-3s from HS-3 in January 1953, followed by four other short cruises with VS-31 (April-May 1953), VS-22 (June-July 1953), VS-39 (August 1953), and VS-36 (October-November 1953).
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) moored off New York City on 10 November 1953, NH 106714
She would then get operational with VS-36 on orders for a short (10-week) Sixth Fleet deployment to the Med that ran from 5 January to 12 March 1954.
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) and USS Hailey (DD-556) were underway at sea in 1954, likely during Sixth Fleet operations
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) is underway at sea. Gilbert Islands, with assigned Air Anti-Submarine Squadron 36 (VS-36) and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 3 (HS-3), was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea from 5 January to 11 March 1954.
Then, as noted by DANFS, “She became the first of her class to have jets make touch-and-go landings on the flight deck while she had no way on, a dangerous experiment successfully conducted on 9 June 1954.”
Her service as a carrier was completed after two wars. Gilbert Islands left Rhode Island on 25 June for Boston and decommissioned there on 15 January 1955. At the time, just five of her sisters were still on active duty, and all would join her in mothballs by May 1957.
While laid up a second time, she was reclassified as Cargo Ship and Aircraft Ferry (AKV)-39 on 7 May 1959, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1961. She would surely have been scrapped, the fate all 18 of her sisters met between 1960 and 1971.
But the Navy had one more mission for the old girl.
Conversion
Ex-Gibert Islands was towed to Brooklyn Navy Yard in August 1962 down the river from her berth with Reserve Group Bayonne for conversion, reclassified as a Major Communications Relay Ship (AGMR-1) on 1 June 1963.
This saw all her old aircraft handling gear removed, as was the rest of her WWII-era armament, replaced by four 3″/50 twin Mk 33s on sponsons. Her flight deck saw a hurricane bow added.
Then came the real changes– turning her topside into a floating antenna farm.
The flight deck was converted to an antenna array with two directional and two omnidirectional antennas. The aircraft hangar bay was converted into communication spaces although one aircraft elevator was retained to allow servicing of equipment and boat storage. In the communication spaces were installed 24 radio transmitters with low through ultra-high frequencies. To provide the necessary cooling of equipment in the communications spaces, three 120-ton air conditioning units were installed with 130 tons dedicated for the communications spaces. The remaining air conditioning tonnage was routed to the other interior spaces of the ship.
She was renamed USS Annapolis, the third warship on the NVR to carry the name after a SpanAm-era gunboat (PG-10) that remained in service until 1940 and a Tacoma-class frigate (PF-15) that remained in service until 1946. Fittingly, her new motto became “Vox Maris” (Voice of the Sea).
Commissioned at Brooklyn Navy Yard on 7 March 1964– capping 19 months of conversion– her skipper would be Capt. John Joseph Rowan (USNA 1942).
Annapolis commissioning, March 7, 1964, Brooklyn Navy Yard from her cruise book
Those attending the commissioning service included RADM Bernard Roeder, Director of Naval Communications, and the Mayor of Annapolis, Maryland, Joseph H. Griscom. The latter presented the ship with an ornate silver service.
AGMR-1 Annapolis Inclining Experiment. Note she has four twin 3″/50 radar-guided rapid-fire mounts installed in place of her old 40mm/20mm fittings. NARA 19nn-b1543-0004
USS Annapolis (AGMR-1) Underway at slow speed in New York Harbor, 12 June 1964, soon after completing conversion from USS Gilbert Islands (AKV-39, originally CVE-107). Staten Island ferryboats are in the left and center backgrounds. NH 106715
Following Operation Steel Pike, an 80-ship U.S.-Spanish exercise held in October 1964, Annapolis soon transferred to (officially) Long Beach the long way, via the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean, and by September 1965 was off Vietnam.
She would spend the lion’s share of the next 48 months there, conducting relay operations on 19 communications patrols, averaging 270 days at sea per year. By December 1968, she had sent more than 1.5 million messages and steamed 150,000 miles as Annapolis.
She would typically intersperse her ~55-day patrols with short port calls around the West Pac, with individual crewmembers rotating out for home every 12-14 months.
As described by AGMR-1.com:
Annapolis, while on station off the coast of Vietnam did drop anchor every 10–15 days for a few hours outside Cam Ranh Bay to receive mail and transfer priority crew. During those brief stops, Navy swift boats would come alongside to receive much appreciated ice cream in 3-gallon containers that were prepared by the ships cooks the night before.
In a key event in Naval history, on 18 August 1966, while in Subic Bay, she used Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, to transmit the first documented ship-to-shore satellite radio message, a dispatch from Yankee Station off Vietnam back to Pacific Fleet Headquarters at Pearl.
The USS Annapolis
The USS Annapolis at Subic Bay, September 5, 1967, the former Gilbert Islands
Returning to Philadelphia on 1 October 1969 via Portuguese Angola, the Cape of Good Hope, Dakar, and Lisbon– including two months of operations with Sixth Fleet out of Naples, Annapolis decommissioned for a third and final time on 20 December 1969.
She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 October 1976 and sold for scrap to the Union Minerals & Alloys Corp. on 19 December 1979.
Annapolis received a Meritorious Unit Commendation and eight battle stars for her service in the Vietnam War.
She was the last of her class in operation, and her relay role was key in the development of the Blue Ridge class LCC command ships (which entered service in 1970-71, effectively replacing her) and the later big deck LHA and LHD phibs.
Epilogue
Little remains of our subject. I cannot find where her bell endures, or a monument or marker exists to her.
The jeep carrier’s only WWII skipper, Les Rice, would continue to serve into the 1950s– earning the Legion of Merit as commander of the Essex-class fleet carrier USS Valley Forge (CV-45) during Korea– and lecture on the role of aircraft in ASW warfare, retiring from the Navy in 1958 as a rear admiral in the post of Commander Naval Air Bases First Naval District.
Rice as skipper of the Gilbert Islands, 1944. His first tour of duty was on the battleship USS Idaho in 1924. He capped a 34-year career following Korea.
Meanwhile, Gilbert Islands has Adam’s Planes, which have been dedicated to the ship and hersquadrons.
The Navy hasn’t reused the name “Gilbert Islands” for a second warship, although two USS Tarawas (CV-40 and LHA-1) and a USS Makin Island (LHD-8) were named after battles that occurred during the Gilberts campaign.
However, there has been a fourth USS Annapolis (SSN-760), a Los Angeles-class submarine commissioned in 1992 and currently part of the Guam-based SubRon15, although she is slated to decommission in FY27.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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In March 2020, U.S. Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. David H. Berger, debuted his transformative Force Design 2030 which, within a decade, intended to recast the Corps from its traditional expeditionary Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) model that it had used since the 1950s to something, well, a lot different.
First, the plan called to “divest to invest” which translated to cutting 12,000 billets, disbanding all seven of the Corp’s tank companies (dialing the clock back to 1941), getting rid of 16 of 21 cannon artillery batteries (thus losing over 2/3rds of its proven 155mm howitzers), halving the number of Assault Amphibian companies (from six big to four small), jettisoning all of the Corp’s bridging units, shuttering all three law enforcement battalions, casing the colors of three active and two reserve infantry battalions (and reducing each battalion left by over 200 billets), cutting the number of aircraft in its 18 fighter attack squadrons– converting from exhausted F-18C/Ds and AV-8Bs to F-35s– from 16 frames to just 10, and cutting eight entire tiltrotor/helicopter squadrons. Plus the Corps lost its famed Scout Sniper program.
U.S. Marines with 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, salute during the 4th Tank Bn. deactivation ceremony on Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center San Diego, in San Diego, California, May 15, 2021. The Marines bid their final farewell to the battalion as it was deactivated in accordance with the Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030 modernization and capabilities-realignment efforts in order to stay prepared for the future fight against near-peer enemies. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Jose S. GuerreroDeLeon)
Jesus wept.
But the payoff was supposed to be big.
The three active component infantry battalions would be recast as “Littoral battalions” in three new Marine Littoral Regiments, a sort of expeditionary anti-ship missile force, and 14 new rocket artillery (HIMARS) batteries would be stood up.
A Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System launcher, a command and control vehicle and a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle are transported by a U.S. Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion from Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Hawaii, out to U.S.S. San Diego, Aug. 16, 2021. The movement demonstrated the mobility of a Marine Corps fires expeditionary advanced base, a core concept in the Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030 efforts. U.S. Navy and Marine Corps units came together from across 17 time zones as they participated in Large Scale Exercise 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Luke Cohen, released)
At the same time, the number of drone squadrons (VMUs) would be doubled (from three to six) and an extra aerial refueler squadron (VMGR) of KC-130s would be added to give the Corps some longer legs in the air. Three new Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) companies would be added, presumably to provide the three Littoral battalions some added muscle.
But the thing is, the big linchpin on moving these missile-armed Littoral Regiments around scattered atolls in the Western Pacific, would be a new breed of between 18 and 35 cheap and simple (remember that) shallow-draft amphibious landing ships akin to the old LSMs and LSTs of WWII and Korea.
Dubbed the Light Amphibious Warship by the Marines and the Landing Ship, Medium by the Navy, the idea would be a beachable 4,000-ton/200-400 foot vessel capable of landing 75 Marines and 8,000 sq. ft. of kit, with a cost of $100 million a pop.
A force of nine LAW/LSMs would be required to deploy a single Marine Littoral Regiment in one lift.
And there lies the rub.
The Congressional Research Service and GAO have been sounding the alarm on the progress of FD2030, which has been quick to get rid of the old Corps but slow to recast the new one.
Meanwhile, the Navy, tasked with buying and fielding the new class of LAW/LSMs, has all but iced the program, at least for now, canceling the RFP issued to the shipbuilding industry for plans as estimates are now putting the cost at something like $400+ million per hull.
“We had a bulletproof – or what we thought – cost estimate, pretty well wrung out design in terms of requirements, independent cost estimates,” Assistant Secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition Nickolas Guertin said at an American Society of Naval Engineers symposium last week.
“We put it out for bid and it came back with a much higher price tag,” he added. “We simply weren’t able to pull it off. So we had to pull that solicitation back and drop back and punt.”
If only the Marines had the tanks, howitzers, and infantry to form the landing teams and aircraft to carry them to form the MAGTFs for these new ‘phibs to carry…
Basic math tells you that the 21 remaining non-MLR Marine infantry battalions, on a 3:1 workup, would only be able to field 5.25 Battalion Landing Teams, the core of a deployable Marine Expeditionary Unit– now without any scout snipers, law enforcement personnel, bridging gear, or tanks, with fewer Amtracs, and possibly without howitzers. The number of helicopters on hand is fewer and even the prospect of having the MV-22 available at all is in the air. For the Navy’s lift part of that equation, only nine LHA/LHDs exist, augmented by 13 LPDs and 10 soon-to-be-decommissioned LSDs which, on the same 3:1 workup, allows just 2.6 three-ship Amphibious Ready Groups at sea on deployment. Even that number is going to tank in a couple of years with the retirement of the used-up LSDs.
As noted by Compass Points on the saga of the LSM being pulled.
This may spell the end of the Landing Ship Medium and is also, at a minimum, a tremendous setback for the Marine Corps’ long-stalled and controversial program to place small missile units on islands in the Pacific. If the value of building the LSM was clear, it would be built. But the value of the current LSM is not clear. This is a negative vote for the entire SIF concept. It is becoming accepted that the Marine missile concept is duplicative of missile capabilities the Navy, Air Force, and Army have already deployed. The Navy may be trying to get out ahead of DOGE by cutting the LSM now. There are still too many questions about the Marine Corps’ entire plan for island-based missile units.
These recent shots of Army SF and Marines doing the small boat/frogman thing, complete with Dräger LAR rebreathers and CRRCs. (Components of images have often been blurred for Persec).
U.S. Army Special Forces, from the 7th Special Forces Group, perform an amphibious assault demonstration during the Hyundai Air and Sea Show and U.S. Army SaluteFest, Miami Beach, Fla., May 26, 2024. The events, were held throughout Memorial Day Weekend, (U.S. Army Photos by Master Sgt. Justin P. Morelli).
Coming in hot! Of course, almost any operational landing would be at oh-dark-30, and would be weapons secure until the last possible minute, but you have to show off for the crowds
The 7th SFG’s Area of Responsibility (AOR) includes Latin America, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and parts of the Atlantic Ocean
Note the Gen 3 Glock in the Safariland holster of the SF M240 man
Yup, Gen 3 Glock. Probably a G19, which were always popular in SF
Meanwhile, he’s rocking a SIG M17– you can tell by the distinctive spare mags. Also, note the blank firing device faux suppressor
Another Glock, third-gen judging by the finger grooves on the grip
Soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) conduct underwater operations in Key West, FL from Nov. 12-19, 2024. The training was a chance to rehearse realistic missions in a maritime environment using a specialty infiltration technique.
Remember, folks each of the 12 companies within each of the five active Special Forces Groups mans, trains, equips, and deploys a full 12-man Special Forces Underwater Operations (SFUWO) ODA, meaning there are supposed to be something on the order of 60 dive-rated “A teams.”
The 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (5th SFG (A)) is responsible for the Middle and Near East.
A swim with an M240 has to be a chore
Marines with 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, train to conduct small boat raids as part of a course hosted by Expeditionary Warfare Training Group, Pacific (EWTGPAC) at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, California. U.S. Marine Corps photos by Cpl. Kyle Chan
U.S. Marines with 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, pilot combat rubber raiding craft during an infantry company small boat raid course hosted by Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, California, Nov. 14, 2024. During the course, Marines trained to plan and execute swimmer reconnaissance for a small boat raid company in preparation for deployment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Kyle Chan)
That view, though.
And in related news, how about this deep dive into a Recon Marine’s VBSS kit.
Both the Army’s USAMU program and the Marines’ (recently retired) Scout Sniper program seek to have memorials produced.
The Civilian Marksmanship Program is holding a special auction of a highly collectible SA M1D Garand sniper rifle (SN 3112737), including all original GI parts such as the original MRT 2-52 leather cheek pad, T37 five-prong flash hider, and correct M84 scope (13712).
The rifle will be available on CMP’s Online Auction site beginning Nov. 18, with bids accepted until Nov. 30, to raise funds toward a U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) Exhibit at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Georgia “in the hopes of contributing to the preservation and legacy of U.S. military marksmanship programs and ensuring future generations learn the significance these units have played in national defense and marksmanship excellence.”
Marine Scout Sniper Monument
The Marine Scout Sniper War Memorial is a planned monument in the Semper Fidelis Memorial Park at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia that will honor the legacy of Marine Scout Snipers.
The memorial will feature a bronze World War I observer with a Brodie helmet and a slung M1903 rifle, assisting a more modern Marine sniper with an M40A6 rifle.
The USMC Scout Sniper Heritage Foundation is raising the cash needed to build the memorial. One way is by selling raffle tickets for an authentic Marine M40 sniper rifle used in the Vietnam War, complete with an original “Greenie” Redfield scope.
With a big boxing match in the news today, how about the biggest Boxer we care about here on the blog, recently seen at play in the historically significant Tsushima Strait. We’re talking about the 29-year-old Ingalls-built Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4), seen conducting flight ops on 18 September 2024 while on her, um, abbreviated Westpac deployment.
All are U.S. Navy photos by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James Finney.
It looks like “America’s Golden Gator” has a good mix of 15th MEU aviation assets aboard including five F-35B Lightning IIs of VMFA-225, and nine MV-22 Ospreys of VMM-165 along with a mix of eight AH-1Z Vipers and UH-1Y Venoms of HMLA-369. Sadly, no CH-53s are embarked it would seem.
How about this great shot of Boxer’s stern, showing a good mix of her self-defense suite to include an MK 38 Mod 2 25mm gun mount (one of four installed) centerline above her dock door, with an eight-cell Sea Sparrow launcher (one of two) above it. There is a 21-cell RAM launcher (1 of 2) to port and a CIWS (1 of 3) to starboard. Note the unmanned M2 .50 cal mounts as well.
The great bow-on flightline shot also shows off Boxer’s 2nd RAM and CIWS installation, just ahead of the island, as well as her SLQ-32 EW suite and commo array on the roof, with the big AN/SPS-48 air search radar on top. Also, it gives some appreciation of the size of the Osprey, which sports a 45-foot wingspan and 30-ton max TO weight. For reference, the big A-5 Vigilante of the Cold War only had a 53-foot span with roughly the same TO weight.
Although they have been in hundreds of engagements and campaigns since 1775, only a handful of fights are noteworthy enough to have shaped the Marine Corps for generations and echo throughout history, becoming as much bywords among those who have earned the Eagle Globe & Anchor as “Valhalla” was to Norse warriors.
The storming of Chapultepec Castle in 1847 (“From the Halls of Montezuma”), Presley O’Bannon’s Marines at Derne in 1805 (“To the Shores of Tripoli”), Belleau Wood in 1918 (“Teufel Hunden“), Guadalcanal in 1942 (The Southern Cross constellation), Iwo Jima in 1945 (raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi), the “Frozen Chosin” in 1950, Hue City in 1968 (the Dong Ba Tower and the later personification of “Animal Mother” and the gang) will endure with the Marines much as the Royal Scots will always mark Waterloo, the Rifles (Gloucestershires) will remember the Imjin River, the Legion will celebrate Camerone Day, and the 101st/82nd Airborne will “own” Overlord.
Operation Phantom Fury, the six-week so-called Second Battle of Fallujah fell broadly on the shoulders of four Marine rifle battalions (3rd Bn/1st Marines, 3rd Bn/5th Marines, 1st Bn/8th Marines, and 1st Bn/3rd Marines) and a LAV company (Charlie Company “Warpigs,” 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion) in November-December 2004, will surely join that pantheon.
With that in mind, check out the most current 88-page USMCU history on the subject, and these deep dive videos (some over an hour in length and very well done) that were recently dropped in the past week.
Two ship commissionings in the news show some decent salutes to those who have sailed into history in days prior.
In New York on Saturday– one day shy of the USMC’s 249th birthday– the Navy commissioned the second destroyer to carry the name of GySgt John Basilone,DDG-122.
Why New York? Basilone was born in Buffalo and grew up in Raritan, New Jersey, just 45 minutes away from the Big Apple.
During Basilone’s service on Guadalcanal, he led two machine gun sections of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, where he used his detachment’s M1917 water-cooled Browning machine guns and an M1911 .45 Government Issue pistol to great effect to break up a Japanese charge of some 3,000 Japanese against his emplacement. The feat earned him the nation’s highest military decoration and was depicted in 2010’s “The Pacific.”
His Medal of Honor citation, from his public file in the National Archives:
Basilone. He was posthumously honored with a Navy Cross for his actions on Iwo Jima, making him the only enlisted Marine in WWII to earn both of the service’s two highest honors.
In 1945, the Navy named a destroyer after Basilone, and in 1948, a life-sized statue of him was installed in his enlistment hometown of Raritan, New Jersey.
The new USS John Basilone’s battle flag includes a pair of crossed M1917s inside the Blue Diamond shoulder patch of the 1st Marine Division.
The Battle Flag is on the portside yardarm. (Photo: General Dynamics)
As detailed by the Navy, “These words characterize the life and service of Gunnery Sergeant Basilone, honor his legacy, and charge future generations of Selfless Warriors to sharpen their spears, take a stand, and move forward.” (Photo: General Dynamics)
Once commissioned, the USS Basilone will be part of the Atlantic Fleet. If she has anything like the service life shown in the rest of her class, she will only retire around 2064.
‘Old Ironsides’ Assist
Meanwhile, up the coast from NYC in Boston, the 27th Littoral Combat Ship, the future USS Nantucket (LCS-27) is set to commission on 16 November at the historic Charlestown Navy Yard. The 14th Freedom-variant is the fifth navy warship to honor “the rich heritage of the people of Nantucket and the maritime legacy that the island represents.”
The monitor USS Nantucket, seen in her post-war configuration. Loaned to the North Carolina Naval Militia in 1895, she was somewhat fancifully recommissioned for Spanish-American War service and only sold for scrapping in 1900. NH 66760-A.
The fourth, a 177-foot steel-hulled Alert-class gunboat (PG-23) commissioned in 1876, carried the name Nantucket as a training ship for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy from 1918 through 1942.
USS Nantucket (PG-23), formerly USS Ranger and USS Rockport, was then loaned to the State of Massachusetts for use at Massachusetts Nautical School. Courtesy of Mr. Gershone Bradford. NH 500
Fittingly, PCU Nantucket (LCS-27) is tied up near the USS Constitution this week as she awaits entrance to the fleet.
