Growing stronger and more assertive by the day, Chinese forces are exerting greater control over the Pacific Ocean west of the so-called “first island chain” stretching from Japan to the Philippines. Chinese rockets, anti-ship missiles and submarines have transformed a swathe of ocean into a salty no-man’s land, where US and allied forces venture only at great risk – and where Chinese forces operate with much greater freedom.
It’s the new main mission of the US Marine Corps to poke holes in this “anti-access/area-denial” zone – island-hopping across the zone with mobile anti-ship missiles in order to threaten Chinese warships and deprive them of the safe haven Beijing is working so hard to establish.
For the Marines’ new littoral regiments, it would be an extraordinarily dangerous campaign. Which is why a new drone-swatting air-defence system the Corps is developing is such a welcome addition to the regiments’ arsenals. If a company of Marines manning some crude missile outpost on an island inside the first island chain can shoot down Chinese drones, they might just prevent the Chinese from pinpointing the outpost – and smashing it with long-range rockets.
The new Marine Air defence Integrated System Mark 1 is a mobile, short-range, surface-to-air defence system designed to counter aerial threats, “particularly the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” according to the Marine Corps.
Growing stronger and more assertive by the day, Chinese forces are exerting greater control over the Pacific Ocean west of the so-called “first island chain” stretching from Japan to the Philippines. Chinese rockets, anti-ship missiles and submarines have transformed a swathe of ocean into a salty no-man’s land, where US and allied forces venture only at great risk – and where Chinese forces operate with much greater freedom.
It’s the new main mission of the US Marine Corps to poke holes in this “anti-access/area-denial” zone – island-hopping across the zone with mobile anti-ship missiles in order to threaten Chinese warships and deprive them of the safe haven Beijing is working so hard to establish.
For the Marines’ new littoral regiments, it would be an extraordinarily dangerous campaign. Which is why a new drone-swatting air-defence system the Corps is developing is such a welcome addition to the regiments’ arsenals. If a company of Marines manning some crude missile outpost on an island inside the first island chain can shoot down Chinese drones, they might just prevent the Chinese from pinpointing the outpost – and smashing it with long-range rockets.
The new Marine Air defence Integrated System Mark 1 is a mobile, short-range, surface-to-air defence system designed to counter aerial threats, “particularly the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” according to the Marine Corps.