The Marine Corps’ New Way Of Operating Will Still Require The LCAC And SSC (From RealClearDefense)

The Marine Corp is looking to transform itself. In his Planning Guidance, the Commandant, General David Berger, lays out a vision for his Service to make it more relevant to meeting the military challenges associated with great power competition. Making this vision a reality will require changing how the Marine Corps and its supporting naval forces are trained, equipped and organized. Much of the public discussion of the new plan has focused on the desire to acquire new classes of amphibious warfare ships which are intended to make it easier to deploy and operate small, agile Marine units within the umbrella of enemy long-range fire systems. Less appreciated is the fact that however organized and equipped, the Marines will still have to get ashore and be resupplied once there. This means that there will be a continuing and even growing role for the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) and its replacement, the Ship-to-Shore connector (SSC). I have written more on this subject here.