US Marines prioriterer Naval Strike Missile - Defence News

Kongsberg /Raytheons missil selger godt. Sjekk at gamle Tomahawk også står på listen. Nå må Kongsberg sørge for lengre rekkevidde for også å erstatte den. (Red.)

US Marines request more missiles, radars in FY22 wish list

By: Megan Eckstein    1 day ago

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Marines in early 2021 combined an unmanned Joint Light Tactical Vehicle with the Naval Strike Missile, successfully hitting a target at sea from land. (U.S. Navy)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Marine Corps’ strategy to overhaul itself by 2030 for a high-end fight in the Pacific is based on a divest-to-invest model: The service will get rid of legacy equipment and units that aren’t useful in the fight it expects in the future, and in return the money that’s freed up will pay for developing the new, sophisticated technology it will need.

Still, getting a little more money in fiscal 2022 would help the service transform faster, Commandant Gen. David Berger wrote to lawmakers.

In an unfunded priorities list sent to Congress, the Marines say additional funding beyond the White House-approved FY22 budget request could support four key areas of investment that will set the Corps up for success in a fight against a peer adversary like China: fires, sensors, mobility and networks.

The unfunded priorities list is a chance for the services to send Congress an unfiltered wish list of how they would spend additional funds, if lawmakers were to make any available.

The top priority in the list is $57.8 million for 35 additional Naval Strike Missiles, which the Marine Corps intends to use as a land-based anti-ship missile, supporting the U.S. Navy by creating sea control and sea denial from the shore.

The FY22 budget request already includes funding for 29 missiles, and this extra funding line would bring that to 64 — the total needed to equip two medium-range missile batteries in the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, the first unit created under Force Design 2030 to reflect how the service will operate in the future.

“As the Marine Corps’ first Ground Based Anti-Ship Missile (GBASM) capability, [Navy-Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS], is a Service force modernization priority central to its contribution to the Naval Expeditionary Force’s (NEF) anti-surface warfare campaign. Ground based launchers add a new type of threat against a peer adversary, stress different surveillance and offensive systems, are hard to detect and track in a cluttered environment, and add a significant level of persistence and depth to existing anti-ship capabilities,” read the Marine Corps document, obtained by Defense News.

“NMESIS will be employed by [medium-range missile] batteries serving as part of an MLR conducting Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) while persisting inside the adversary’s weapons engagement zone (WEZ). When integrated into sensor and communication networks supporting a naval/maritime kill chain, and synchronized with employment of other missile systems, the Marine Corps’ [medium-range missile] battery will serve as a component of the NEF ‘stand-in force’ in support of the naval sea control effort,” the document stated.

Øverst i skjemaet

Nederst i skjemaet

The Marines also asked for $96 million for 48 Tactical Tomahawk missiles. Though the service will start out using the Naval Strike Missile for medium-range land-based strike missions, the Tomahawk will help extend its reach into longer ranges, with the Marines planning to develop a new long-range anti-ship missile to control even greater swaths of sea from small expeditionary bases on land.