SEOUL, South Korea — In a tactical U-turn, U.S. Marines in Japan are reversing their traditional mission — from assaulting beaches to defending them.
Symbolizing a changing strategic environment, the Okinawa-based 12th Marine Regiment was re-christened the “12th Marine Littoral Regiment” in a Wednesday ceremony. The name change reflects a more profound shift away from the Corps’ customary role in the Indo-Pacific as a seaborne force that storms enemy coasts. The new 12th MLR, only the second created by the service, looks suspiciously like a Marine’s historic nemesis – a coastal artillery unit.
The new name also reflects recent technological shifts in warfighting and littoral combat – and takes advantage of what U.S. strategists say is China’s Achilles heel in the superpower rivalry for friends and influence in East Asia.
Vulnerable
After decades of determined expansion, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy now approaches the U.S. Navy in muscle. The 2023 Global Naval Powers Ranking, which assesses multiple dynamics, rated the PLAN just behind the American fleet. But the U.S. Navy patrols a global beat, while China’s naval forces are heavily concentrated on the tense, heavily trafficked waters off the country’s coast.
But the PLAN has its own challenges, particularly as Chinese admirals ponder their highest priority: the long-term fate of Taiwan, the island democracy the Communist regime of President Xi Jinping has vowed one day to bring under Beijing’s control. Any PLAN move to blockade Taiwan or prevent U.S. and allied forces from coming to Taipei’s aid in the event of an armed clash would mean leaving the safety of Chinese coastal bases and entering the open Pacific.
However, the primary routes to the open sea are channels dominated by Japan’s Ryukyu archipelago and by the Philippines’ northern island of Luzon, part of what strategists collectively refer to as the “First Island Chain.”
The U.S. has ground forces stationed in both areas, and Wednesday’s ceremony showed that American commanders are very much aware of the transformed regional dynamic.
“We’re proud to be here in the First Island Chain, and a force prepared to respond to contingencies wherever and whenever required,” Marine Colonel Peter Eltringham, the regiment’s new commander, said at the ceremony at Okinawa’s Camp Hansen.
Col. Eltringham’s command is actually the Marine Corps’s second littoral regiment. The first MLR was established in Hawaii last year, and the third is scheduled to deploy in the Indo-Pacific theater by 2030.
And while littoral regiments will differ in mission from Marine units of the past, U.S. officials say they will also differ from the set-in-stone beach-defending forces of old, operating as a mobile, island-hopping force.
According to the Corps’ website, a littoral regiment comprising between 1,800 and 2,000 Marines is designed to be an agile force that can forward-deploy multiple stealth infantry teams and anti-shipping missile bases. It boasts integral surveillance and air-defense assets.
In a hypothetical clash with China, commanders envision that the littoral Marines could quietly move onto an island along the Pacific archipelago, scout out enemy forces and reveal their positions to nearby U.S. aircraft, ships or submarines. The Marines also have new capabilities to take out enemy assets themselves.
Gen. Yasunori Morishita, chief of staff of Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force, was on hand for the Wednesday ceremony, a sign of the importance of the evolving mission of the Marine unit for the Tokyo government.
New calculus
For all their military value, the American forces in Okinawa also represent a political headache. U.S. troops on Okinawa are unpopular, and popular longtime Gov Denny Tamaki routinely complains of culture clashes, environmental damage and crimes committed by American servicemen. To ease the burden, the two countries agreed in 2012 that some 9,000 of the 19,000 Marines on Okinawa would relocate to Guam.
But China’s expansive and aggressive regional stance under Mr. Xi is changing the calculus. This January, U.S. and Japanese senior ministers agreed that the 12th MLR would remain in Okinawa.
The changing Marine mission comes as Japan’s own military is re-posturing. Formerly tasked with defending the northern island of Hokkaido against Russia, Japanese forces are now focused on fortifying islands south of Okinawa. Missile bases are rising, most notably on Yonaguni, the Japanese island closest to Taiwan, and Mikayo, which dominates the deep-water Miyako Strait.
Japan converted an infantry regiment to marine duties in 2018. Recent exercises have focused on recapturing an island seized by enemy forces.
The Marine Corps, under recently retired Commandant General David H. Berger, has undergone its own sea change in mission, reflecting the new strategic environment and the very different challenge China poses compared to past adversaries.
The Marines earned a peerless reputation for amphibious combat across World War II’s Pacific theater — including an assault on Okinawa itself. It maintained its crack status on standard infantry operations in Korea and Vietnam, though some Army colleagues criticized the heavy casualties its missions often took.
With China now asserting itself across the Indo-Pacific, the combat boot is on the other foot — as seen in U.S. Marines taking on far more preventive and defensive duties than in the past.
An officer from Britain’s Royal Marines observed that modern surveillance and weapons systems make beach assaults today potentially even bloodier than in World War II. The ongoing war in Ukraine has only highlighted the importance of data-networked, satellite-guided, long-range artillery power.
The conflict has also taught lessons about denying an adversary control of coastal areas. Moscow’s once-vaunted Black Sea fleet has retreated from Ukraine’s coast and is now shifting units from Crimea after taking heavy losses from Ukrainian missile strikes.
“Ukraine’s success…is all the more remarkable as the country does not currently have a functioning navy,” noted the Atlantic Council in October. “Instead, Ukraine has relied on daring commando raids along with a combination of domestically produced drones and long-range cruise missiles provided by the country’s Western partners.”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.