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Chinese Marines appear to mirror US Marines as USMC returns to base

  • The Chinese Marines are preparing for global operations similar to those of the US Marine Corps.
  • China is building amphibious flattops whose size rivals those of the US.
  • US Marines are also changing strategies, in their case away from storming beaches.

“Send in the Marines” is an old American joke for when the going gets tough. It can also be Chinese.

Instead of just guarding Chinese naval bases and supporting an invasion of Taiwan, the Chinese Marine Corps appears to be preparing for amphibious operations around the world – just as US Marines do. China is building a force of amphibious flattops that can launch naval helicopters and possibly the combat vehicles that drive to the coast.

“The investment in large amphibious assault ships indicates that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) envisions a future in which it can deploy expeditionary strike groups similar to those the United States has deployed over the past fifty years,” Sam Tangredi wrote in a new article. book published by the China Maritime Studies Institute of the US Naval War College “A globally deployable amphibious/expeditionary group is a far cry from the humble origins of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) amphibious force and a significant leap forward in PLAN capabilities (People’s Liberation Army Navy) that existed in the early years of this century.”

The People’s Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps, as it is officially known, was founded in 1953 to conquer Taiwan and other nationalist islands. Like the United States Marine Corps, the PLANMC is a branch of the Navy. Its missions were those of traditional naval infantry: guarding naval bases, garrisoning island outposts in the South China Sea, and supporting an amphibious invasion of Taiwan by the Chinese military, which has its own amphibious assault force .

But the PLANMC has grown so much that some experts wonder whether it will become an independent service. From two brigades and 12,000 personnel in 2017, the PLANMC has been expanded to eight brigades, with a target of 100,000 personnel; that compares to approximately 170,000 active-duty U.S. Marines.

Tangredi, director of the Institute for Future Warfare Studies at the Naval War College, said there is no direct evidence that China has plans for global amphibious warfare. But “if the Taiwanese scenario is the primary target, why is the PLA building amphibious warships optimized for global operations?” he asks.

Invading Taiwan does not require large amphibious assault ships like the Wasp-class ships, 800-foot-long floating airports for Navy helicopters and jump jets like the AV-8B Harrier II and the F-35B Lightning II, and concentrating attack force in small numbers of large ships entail risks. Still, China is building 075-type amphibious assault ships that can carry up to 30 helicopters, as well as 1,200 Marines and their heavy equipment, including tanks. The upcoming 50,000-ton Type 076 will be the world’s largest amphibious assault ship.

“For an invasion of Taiwan across a strait of approximately one hundred nautical miles (nm), LHDs are not necessarily the optimal (or the most cost-effective) platforms when numerous smaller warships are available (including civilian commercial vessels),” Tangredi wrote. . “However, they are optimal for directing the transport of Marines and conducting operations at ranges as far as the Horn of Africa, islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean or – with appropriate future logistical support – the Mediterranean Sea.”

Back to their roots


U.S. Navy amphibious assault vehicles approach the USS Wasp during a ship-to-shore exercise in 2020.

U.S. Navy amphibious assault vehicles approach the USS Wasp during a ship-to-shore exercise in 2020.

Lance Cpl. Jacqueline Parsons/USMC



The US Marine Corps is also adapting. The country is shifting from an emphasis on storming beaches — the U.S. has not mounted a major beach assault under fire since the Korean War — to supporting the U.S. Navy with missile-equipped units to hunt Chinese ships from island bases. This transforms the U.S. Marine Corps into “an archipelago maneuver force designed to conduct littoral and naval denial operations,” Tangredi said.

The Corps devised a new force structure to operate in an age of drones and anti-ship missiles. In this new structure, naval coastal units “would not be optimized for amphibious assaults or combat against enemy forces on land, but would use previously unoccupied territory to conduct attacks on warships and aircraft – essentially naval combat from land,” Tangredi wrote. Retired senior Navy commanders were stunned.

For example, the USMC has given all its tanks to the US military, while creating mobile units that can quickly turn small islands in the Pacific Ocean into missile bases from which to attack Chinese ships. The 3rd Littoral Regiment was established in 2022 and two more regiments are planned.

These coastal units would “assist the Navy in maintaining sea control in the East and South China Seas,” Tangredi wrote. “Marines would operate as part of a littoral battle group, with the Navy having overall command, supplying the warships (and necessary support ships) and providing the bulk of the group’s firepower. Armed with land-based versions of the Navy’s anti-ship missiles, Marine units would maneuver continuously while on land using ground vehicles or from island to island using the proposed LAW (light amphibious warship).

Ironically, the United States Marine Corps is returning to its historical roots. Marines have always played an ambiguous role, neither truly army nor navy (poet Rudyard Kipling also called them ‘soldier and sailor’). During the time of the Roman Empire, Marines were naval infantry tasked with capturing and guarding naval bases, boarding enemy ships, and acting as shipboard military police to put down mutinies.

This is what the U.S. Marine Corps has done for most of its history since its founding in 1775. But in World War II and beyond, it began to look more like a scaled-down version of the U.S. Army, conducting massive amphibious invasions in multiple divisions carried out and fought. conventional ground campaigns in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Small, light units flying from island to island in the Pacific would be more in line with traditional USMC roles.

As for the Chinese Marines, their historical purpose was to storm Taiwan, not storm small atolls on behalf of the Navy. For China and America, their marines switch roles.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine and other publications. He has an MA in Political Science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him further Tweet And LinkedIn.

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