US Marines Corps overhaul will lead to failure in fight over Taiwan: retired officers

Name: Why mainland China is holding military drills in Taiwan Strait following US Speaker Pelosi’s trip
Uploaded: 2022-08-08T14:30:12.000Z
Duration: 7 min 7 s
Description: Why mainland China is holding military drills in Taiwan Strait following US Speaker Pelosi’s trip

Force Design 2030 aims to turn the storied Marine Corps into a faster and lighter combat force with reduced heavy armour

Chinese analyst says US marines are under pressure after seeing the PLA’s recent military overhaul with China’s marines becoming an agile force

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Force Design 2030 is a plan by the US military to modernise its marine corps, including cutting nearly 7 per cent of its182,000 troop numbers by 2030 and the number of infantry battalions from 24 to 21.Photo: US Marine Corps

Minnie Chan

Published: 10:30pm, 8 Aug 2022

US plans to turn its Marine Corps into a faster and lighter combat force will lead to failure in a conflict with the PLA over Taiwan, retired American officers have warned.

In two articles published last week as the People’s Liberation Army started several days of war games around the island, the retired officers criticised the plans, particularly those to shed heavy-armour units which they believe would reduce casualties in combat.

In Marine Corps Times, Franz Gayl, a retired marine major, said the marines’ role in defending Taiwan was “destined to fail” because the corps would lose the “time-tested potency of its signature self-sufficient combined arms Marine Air-Ground Task Force”, the structure used on all marine missions.

Gayl said this was significant because analysis proved “the Marine Corps is a key contributor to victory in the US Indo-Pacific Command’s Taiwan contingency”.

“Taiwan always will mean more to China than the US. We will lose a fight for Taiwan due to the US’ unwillingness to endure the losses when the cause was never existential to our nation’s survival,” he said.

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Why mainland China is holding military drills in Taiwan Strait following US Speaker Pelosi’s trip

Force Design 2030 is a decade-long plan introduced by Marine Commandant General David Berger in 2020 to cut nearly 7 per cent of its 182,000 troops by 2030.