United States Marine Corps Organization and Missions

The Marine Corps in 2004 is transforming doctrine, forces, and equipment to face future challenges, even as the service operates from a wartime footing. Building on the successful techniques for amphibious warfare that helped to win World War II, the Marine Corps is maturing its present concept of expeditionary maneuver warfare from the sea, including lessons from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2001 through 2003. Harmonizing with the Navy’s Sea Power 21 vision for modern naval warfare, the Marine Corps has developed its own vision for building, projecting, and maintaining persistent combat power into the 21st century.

The 33rd Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, former commanding general of the I Marine Expeditionary Force and an instrumental figure in the planning of 2003’s Operation Iraqi Freedom, last year told Sea Power: “My goal is to prepare the Marine Corps to project force wherever it is needed, from the sea; to be ready to go more quickly, and, once we are on the battlefield, to increase our flexibility and adaptability.”

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the I Marine Expeditionary Force and the 1st Marine Division, as part of a joint U.S. Army and British combined arms force, projected more than 75,000 Marines through Kuwait in fewer than 60 days, roughly half the time it took to build a comparable force during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1991. I MEF pushed through Iraq from a Kuwaiti Naval base to Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad, 600 miles inland in total, in 26 days, destroying almost five Iraqi divisions and four Republican Guard divisions along the way.

Despite the militarily successful campaign against Saddam Hussein’s forces, Hagee and other senior military planners took note of the challenges presented by denial of access from friends and foes alike during the buildup to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“Every country has to determine what is in their best interests,” Hagee noted. “In some cases, their best interests are not going to support what the coalition wants to do. We should have the capability to project power ashore regardless of whether we have access or not. We cannot do that today because we don’t have all of the platforms that we need.”

In the Department of Defense, the competition for resources to fund the acquisition of new platforms and capabilities has never been sharper than it is now, during the global war against terrorism. The combined Navy and Marine Corps budget for fiscal year 2004 includes $114.6 billion, up $3.5 billion from FY 2003. For the Marine Corps, 62 percent of its portion of the FY 2004 budget goes to manpower, 22 percent to operations and maintenance, and 4 percent to research and development of new platforms and systems.

The Marine Corps’ share of the Department of Defense budget is about 6 percent overall, funding 12 percent of the nation’s active forces, including 23 percent of the active ground-forces divisions and 20 percent of all active U.S. ground-maneuver battalions. The Marine Corps also maintains 14 percent of the military’s overall tactical aviation capability, including 20 percent of active fighter and attack aircraft squadrons, and 17 percent of the DoD’s attack helicopters. The Marine Corps provides about one-third of the DoD’s active ground combat service support capabilities.

Hagee is quick to point out that the most important asset reflected in the Marine Corps’ budget remains its people. The Marine Corps personnel profile for 2004 shows a ratio of one officer for every nine enlisted, and one civilian employee for every 10 uniformed Marines. In 2004, there are more than 170,000 Marines on active duty. Of that total, more than 114,000 were in the operating forces and more than 30,000 were deployed around the world. The Marine Corps Reserve force includes 39,000 personnel. The Marine Corps is the most youthful of the armed services, with an average age of 23, seven to nine years younger than the average age of other military forces. The Marine Corps also has the highest percentage of enlisted personnel in the grades of E-3 and below, about 48 percent, compared to 26 percent for the Army, 25 percent for the Air Force, and 22 percent for the Navy. The Marine Corps’ force structure is organized so that at any given time approximately 68 percent of Marines are on their first term of enlistment. To maintain its force structure, the Corps must recruit 39,000 men and women each year.

Marine forces are organized based on the Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF) structure, which is a basic, scalable design including a ground combat element, an air combat element, a command-and-control element, and a combat service support, or logistics, element. The largest MAGTFs are the Marine expeditionary forces (MEF), including between 20,000 and 90,000 Marines equipped with 60 days worth of supplies when deployed. The MEF’s combat forces include the ground combat elements of Marine divisions, and the aviation combat elements of Marine air wings, of which there are three each in active service. The Marine expeditionary brigade (MEB) is a MAGTF including between 3,000 and 20,000 Marines, with 30 days worth of supplies. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Marine Corps established the 4th MEB, a specialized antiterrorist brigade that encompasses the Marine Security Force Battalion and Fleet Antiterrorist Support Teams, the Marine Security Guard Battalion, the Chemical-Biological Incident Response Force, and a new infantry battalion. This led to a request to increase the Marine Corps’ end strength by 2,400 Marines to a total of 175,000 Marines on active duty.

The smallest MAGTF is the Marine expeditionary unit (MEU), including between 1,500 and 3,000 Marines. A MEU (usually also earning rating as “special operations capable”) is the typical deployed formation embarked aboard the amphibious ships of a Navy expeditionary strike group. A MEU that is special operations capable has been trained and tested at carrying out missions ranging from conventional amphibious operations to peacekeeping and to the rescue of American citizens and other civilians endangered by civil insurrections. The MEU is usually commanded by a Marine colonel, and carries aboard ships 15 days worth of supplies.

The Marine Corps maintains three MEFs: I MEF on the West Coast, headquartered at Camp Pendleton, Calif.; II MEF on the East Coast, headquartered at Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and III MEF, deployed to bases in Japan and Okinawa. The I, II, and III MEFs also include the command elements of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd MEBs, which can be raised from the MEFs as needed and deployed overseas, usually with a naval task force of 15 amphibious ships.

The Marine Corps Reserve has been a major resource in support of the active duty force. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 23,000 Marine reservists were activated, as parts of units or individually, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Marine Corps Reserve units have flown, fought, and provided combat service support for the global war on terrorism. Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa all saw Reserves fulfilling their commitments to the Marine Corps Total Force concept.

The Marine Corp Reserve forces include the 4th Marine Division; the 4th Marine Air Wing; and the 4th Service Support Group. The Marine Corps Reserve force’s end strength allows for almost 40,000 Marines. The reserves’ budget for FY 2004 includes more than $500 million for personnel and more than $170 million for operations and maintenance. Three missions have been assigned to the Marine Corps Reserve force including: to augment and reinforce active component Marines during crises; to provide peacetime operational tempo and personnel tempo relief for the active units; and to be participating citizens in local communities.

Dependent upon the size of the force in question, the ground combat element of a deploying MAGTF may include infantry, engineers, reconnaissance, and headquarters units; 155mm field artillery; M1A1 main battle tanks; light armored vehicles; and amphibious assault vehicles. Aviation combat elements include the aviators and support personnel for variously composed fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft units. The Marine Corps operates an air force of F/A-18C/D Hornet strike fighters, AV-8B Harrier II short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) attack planes, EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare planes, KC-130 Hercules tanker/transports, CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopters, CH-53 Stallion helicopters, and UH-1 and AH-1 utility/attack helicopters.

In 2004, the Marine Corps budget supports long-term modernization goals for a more homogenized inventory of aircraft and fighting vehicles. Some new acquisitions in ground combat and aviation systems continue through the third decade of the century to replace aging equipment. For example, though delayed almost two years after mishaps and engineering problems, the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft acquisition continues, destined to replace the CH-46 fleet and to provide a higher-altitude, higher-performance medium lift aircraft. The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is in development to replace an inventory of more than 1,000 Amphibious Assault Vehicles with a high-speed and hard-hitting armored personnel carrier and infantry support chassis. Meanwhile, the Navy is supporting a service life enhancement program for the Air Cushion Landing Craft (LCAC), a key enabler of Marine power projection doctrine. The Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force jointly are funding development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a new strike aircraft designed in three variants to meet the requirements of land-based, carrier-based, and STOVL aviation. Additionally, new KC-130J tanker/transports are funded, and upgraded versions of the light helicopters, UH-1Ys and AH-1Zs, are also part of the program.

Lessons from recent conflicts, such as Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, show the value of acquiring the MV-22 and other advanced platforms, Hagee said. In Afghanistan, Marine Corps and Navy combined Task Force 58 operated 400 miles inland in high-altitude, mountainous terrain that strained the toughest aircraft in inventory to reach and remain on station. Hagee and others among the Marine staff want the force to have the ability to accomplish what was done in Afghanistan directly from the sea, without requiring the permissive port of entry or intermediate logistics bases offered by neighboring Pakistan.

For the MAGTF ground combat elements, new weapons are being introduced under programs shared with the U.S. Army. These new weapons are the Javelin anti-armor weapon, the XM777 155mm lightweight howitzer, and the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System. Ground combat element organic artillery assets, such as the M777 and the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, are improving to support maneuver fire-support requirements as the Navy gradually acquires new guns (such as the 5-inch/62-caliber Mk45 Mod 4 and the planned Advanced Gun System) and improved land-attack missile systems aboard current and future platforms, such as the DD(X) surface combatant.

In addition to the MAGTF structures, Marines also provide forces for specialized missions worldwide. For example, more than 1,200 Marines serve as security guards at approximately 130 U.S. embassies and consulates in 117 countries. Marine Security Guard detachments assigned to the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, made significant contributions to the recovery from the 1998 terrorist bombings, leading to the State Department’s request for 37 additional Marine Security Guard detachments over a five-year period.

Signed by President Harry S. Truman on June 28, 1952, Public Law 416 from the 82nd Congress provided for three standing Marine divisions and air wings, and coequal status for the Commandant with the Joint Chiefs of Staff when matters of direct concern to the Marine Corps were under consideration.

Congress had the Marine Corps specifically in mind when members wrote: “American history, recent as well as remote, has fully demonstrated the vital need for the existence of a strong growth of potentially large conflagrations by prompt and vigorous action during their incipient stages. The nation’s shock troops must be the most ready when the nation is least ready … to provide a balanced force in readiness for a naval campaign and, at the same time, a ground-and-air striking force ready to suppress or contain international disturbances short of large-scale war.”

Half a century ago, as Congress passed legislation to ensure “the maintenance of a Marine force,” members urged “the need for a Marine Corps as a ready force is paramount.” Today as the service fights in the war against terrorism and prepares to face other unknown challenges of a new century, the Marines are determined to remain at the tip of America’s spear.