Marine Corps looking strong ahead of QDR

[kinnem]

Looks like the Marine Corps could come through the QDR relatively unscathed.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/art...Experts-Marine-Corps-looking-strong-ahead-QDR

 

[scoutpilot]

I'd hate for them to not have jets that can take off vertically. That'd be a crying shame.

 

[Vista123]

I understand the following quote was not at all the point of this article.

However can someone respond to this:



“I think what might surprise people is that while we are talking about shrinking the Army pretty aggressively and talking about the Army’s missions changing pretty dramatically, the Marine Corps mission is going to be enforced in the QDR.”

How are the Army’s missions changing dramatically?

 

[Strength and Honor]

I understand the following quote was not at all the point of this article.

However can someone respond to this:



“I think what might surprise people is that while we are talking about shrinking the Army pretty aggressively and talking about the Army’s missions changing pretty dramatically, the Marine Corps mission is going to be enforced in the QDR.”

How are the Army’s missions changing dramatically?

I read in Army Times this week that the Army is going to be focused on the Pacific a lot more in the coming years: Army helicopter pilots are becoming able to land on Navy ships, and three month deployments to the Pacific will become much more common.

So maybe that's what it means by the Army's mission changing?

 

[MemberLG]

I understand the following quote was not at all the point of this article.

However can someone respond to this:



“I think what might surprise people is that while we are talking about shrinking the Army pretty aggressively and talking about the Army’s missions changing pretty dramatically, the Marine Corps mission is going to be enforced in the QDR.”

How are the Army’s missions changing dramatically?

Reading the article again, it sound more like a Marine Corps marketing pitch than an unbiased article. Being biased, I could say the Army has similar capabilities as the Marine Corps (I am kidding). The new QDR hasn't been published yet so unless they had an advance copy, it's a speculation.

Scanning the 2010 QDR, there are about 20 things that the DoD supposed to focus on. One focus area was "Prevail in today's war." Since OIF is over and OEF will end, my guess is that "today's war" will be a minor focus in the new QDR and accordingly change the Army's missions. The number of KIAs says something about what the Army did in last 11 years.

Without a ground war, we don't need a large ground force to other things such as "succeed in counterinsurgency, stability, and counterterrorism operations, " "build the security capacity of partner states," and etc.