Preparing for a China war, the Marines are retooling how they’ll fight

U.S. troops are preparing for conflict on an island-hopping battlefield across Asia, against an enemy force that has home-field advantage

By Ellen Nakashima
March 29, 2024 at 11:55 a.m. EDT



Marines from the 3d Littoral Combat Team train on tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided missiles or TOW missile system in Hawaii in January. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

POHAKULOA TRAINING RANGE, Hawaii — The Marine gunner knelt on the rocky red soil of a 6,000-foot-high volcanic plain. He positioned the rocket launcher on his shoulder, focused the sights on his target, a rusted armored vehicle 400 yards away, and fired. … Two seconds later, a BANG. … “Perfect hit,” said his platoon commander.

The gunner, 23-year-old Lance Cpl. Caden Ehrhardt, is a member of the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, a new formation that reflects the military’s latest concept for fighting adversaries like China from remote, strategic islands in the western Pacific. These units are designed to be smaller, lighter, more mobile — and, their leaders argue, more lethal. Coming out of 20 years of land combat in the Middle East, the Marines are striving to adapt to a maritime fight that could play out across thousands of miles of islands and coastline in Asia.

Instead of launching traditional amphibious assaults, these nimbler groups are intended as an enabler for a larger joint force. Their role is to gather intelligence and target data and share it quickly — as well as occasionally sink ships with medium-range missiles — to help the Pacific Fleet and Air Force repel aggression against the United States and allies and partners like Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines.



Marines train on the Ares Company’s Multi-Purpose Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapons System (MAAWS) range. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)



(Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

These new regiments are envisioned as one piece of a broader strategy to synchronize the operations of U.S. soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, and in turn with the militaries of allies and partners in the Pacific. Their focus is a crucial stretch of territory sweeping from Japan to Indonesia and known as the First Island Chain. China sees this region, which encompasses an area about half the size of the contiguous United States, as within its sphere of influence.

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Marines take a break from their conflict training. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

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By Ellen Nakashima
Ellen Nakashima is a national security reporter with The Washington Post. She was a member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning teams, in 2022 for an investigation of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, in 2018 for coverage of Russia's interference in the 2016 election, and in 2014 and for reporting on the hidden scope of government surveillance. Twitter https://twitter.com/nakashimae