The Marine Corps is going through some significant changes and is modernizing in accordance with the latest National Defense Strategy. In 2020, Commandant of the Marine Corps General David Berger published his roadmap to the modernization of the service and the changes to the Marines’ mission and organization. This could change the future mission of the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC).
But first, the changes to the Marine Corps overall will be significant. After two decades of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Marines are moving to “near-peer” potential adversaries, mainly China and Russia.
The four themes that will characterize future MARSOC operators
Only a paragraph in Force Design 2030 related to the Marine Special Operations Command; it talks about their personnel requirements and appropriate rotations.
However, in 2018, under then-commander of MARSOC, MG Carl Mundy III, MARSOC published its own roadmap for the changes coming under the Force Design 2030. The publication spelled out how MARSOC will adapt in the future.
MG Mundy wrote that there are four major themes that will shape the force’s capabilities and how the operators will meet the challenges in the future warfighting environment. These are the Cognitive Operator; MARSOF as a Connector; Combined Arms for the Connected Arena; and Enterprise Level Agility.
These four themes are mutually supportive and interconnected.
Related: MARSOC: A guide to becoming an elite Marine Raider
During MARSOC’s annual Cognitive Raider Symposium last year, Col. John Lynch, MARSOC deputy commander, pointed out key traits that help to define a Cognitive Raider.
“It starts with being a problem solver, one that never becomes complacent but instead remains adaptable and forward-thinking,” he said.
The Cognitive Raider initiative states that Marine operators in future warfighting environments “must be able to understand [the environments] and then adapt their approaches across an expanded range of solutions.”
“While tough, close-in, violent actions will remain a feature of future warfare, MARSOF must increasingly integrate tactical capabilities and partnered operations with evolving national, theater and interagency capabilities across all operational domains, to include those of information and cyber,” MARSOC’s 2018 said.
Related: The Marine Corps is facing a crisis that will shape its future identity
MARSOC is better prepared to switch from counterterrorism to near-peer conflict, according to former commander
MG Mundy’s vision for the future was published before the current United States National Defense Strategy moved the focus from counterterrorism and counter-insurgency to conflict against near-peer adversaries, like Russia and China. Yet, his four themes are forward-looking and adaptable to any scenario or environment.
MARSOC, along with the other SOCOM units, seeing the slow pullout from its counterterrorism role, was already preparing for the transition to near-peer conflict.
MARSOC is trending to work more towards a reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance role.
“We’ve had to look at areas of how to train operators not just to be special operators enabling direct action, special reconnaissance, foreign internal defense, but also be facilitators and accelerators for other joint force capabilities that needed access to that space,” Col. Ian Fletcher, assistant chief of staff of plans and resourcing, said.
The next commander of MARSOC, MG Daniel Yoo, wrote that the SOF community and MARSOC were much more prepared for the switch than their conventional counterparts in the armed services.
Related: Dignity and Respect: An exclusive look at how the Army is training drill sergeants for a new era
“As Marines and Raiders, we never lost our focus on Asia. We’ve been supporting global ops, primarily in the Central Command arena and Africa, but we have 500 operators in 18 countries, many of them in the Indo-Pacific, in support of our partners out there,” Yoo said.
“The five potential threats in the national defense strategy are all there. China, for example, is a global competitor. So you can still affect decision-making in support of U.S. objectives whether you’re in that region or not,” he added.
The current commander of MARSOC, MG Matthew Trollinger, who took over command in May 2022, is continuing MARSOC’s improvements across the board and is working towards better interoperability with their SOCOM partners as they move on to better face the next challenges.
Feature Image: U.S. Marine Corps Raiders with the 3d Marine Raider Battalion take a break during training at Eglin Range, Fla., May 22, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph Pick) (Portions of this image were obscured for security reasons)
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This is very trying on individuals that have conditioned themselves not only for the physical demands but more importantly the mental and psychological demands of the A&S and having the ability to work in a team environment after being pushed to the limits of the physical, mental and psychological demands of this training
The Marine will suffer (in my opinion) over all, with the current commandant. He pushed to phase out ALL tanks in the Corps and it happened, same with Helos (w/exception to the 53’s and few 46’s). He wants over 12,000 Marines gone by 2030. The Marine Corps is the largest special forces in the U.S. arsenal, w/specialized SpecOps. MARSOC is a major asset to special operations command! My hope, is that MARSOC is NOT led astray by the political military leaders.
1969 I joined the Marines.
Hello Steve. I served with the 7th SFG at Camp Tyze and Cobra Base in the Orzgan province Afghanistan as a quoat-on force PSG, detached from C. co 2/5 Infatry BN (Cobras), 25th IN DIV, from 04-05 to one of your ODA teams in Camp Tyze. A very professional and sharp element in the 7th SFG. That was the best combined-unit team I ever served with. And it was an honor serving with those men. You guys are BAD ASS! RLTW!!