…“The Navy and Marine Corps are pursuing capabilities to implement their Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment concept, which reflects the shift the Marine Corps is making away from large-scale amphibious assaults with amphibs and the Maritime Prepositioning Force and toward more distributed, smaller-scale amphibious operations,” said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “This new way of conducting amphibious operations is designed to increase the survivability of Marine forces through disaggregation while enabling them to contribute to offensive operations.”
A large-scale amphibious landing force is easily identified by modern technology. That leaves two options: Reduce anti-access threats to protect the assault force, or shift toward smaller, more distributed amphibious operations. The second are far more preferred and likely, according to Clark, who previously served as special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations and director of his Commander’s Action Group.“Smaller, more distributed amphibious ops are more survivable, require less reduction in enemy anti-access capabilities, and are less escalatory,” he said...