Gary Anderson
Having played the Chinese side in a number of war games and studied their strategic approach in projects for DoD’s Office of Net Assessment, I have a reasonable feel for how Beijing views the Marine Corps Force Design doctrine. Below is my take on their assessment of Force Design.
Situation
As we prepare to bring the rogue province of Taiwan back into the bosom of the Motherland, we have assessed the situation of American strategy to influence any attempt on our part to bring Taiwan under our control by force. Essentially, U.S. strategic posture in the region has been relatively static for several decades with one exception. The Marine Corps’ shift in 2020 from a global force in readiness to a narrow Sino Island chain focus. This concept called Force Design (FD) envisions placing small units called "stand in Forces" (SIF) on the islets and shoals in the South China Sea illegally claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Armed with short range anti-ship missiles, these small units would seek to deny us sea control in the disputed regions in the First Island Chain. Overall, this operational concept is called Expeditionary Advance Base Operations (EABO). The SIF are designed to shoot and move supported by a new class of amphibious ships called Landing Ship Medium (LSM), with no armored protection, these ships are designed to protect themselves by blending in with normal merchant traffic.
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