By Zachary Keck
A senior officer said the Marines will not undertake amphibious assaults in the mold of Iwo Jima in the future.
The U.S. Marine Corps does not plan on launching traditional amphibious assaults anymore, a senior officer told reporters on Thursday.
With the end of the post-9/11 wars, and the new rebalance to Asia, the U.S. Marines have been touting a return to their amphibious roots. However, the future will not look entirely the past, according to Lt. Gen. Kenneth Glueck, the commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command.
Stars & Stripes reports that Glueck told journalists on Thursday that the Marines do not intend to carry out traditional assaults on enemy-controlled territory in the mold of Inchon, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima during WWII. AS Glueck explained, “We’re not going to take [our assault ships and landing craft] right into the teeth of the enemy. We’re going to take it around to find the gaps and the seams around the flanks or even further.”
In a nutshell, the Marines “want to put strength against weakness…. We’re going to go … where they’re weak.” As part of this approach, Glueck said that the Marines will conduct most amphibious assaults at night.
The reasoning behind this shift is not difficult to ascertain. As I wrote on the occasion of the D-Day anniversary earlier this month, modern defense technologies have made amphibious assaults — always one of the most complicated military operations — exceedingly difficult.
Read the full story at The Diplomat