The Marine Corps is divesting its tank fleet as part of a strategic and tactical shift towards a more sea-based, multi-domain and amphibious approach to keep pace with increasing maritime threats and be able to respond to contingencies involving island chains, coastal and other types of integrated land-sea-air operations – challenges that clearly involve possible Chinese contingencies.

Abrams tanks, while considered essential to land warfare operations, are difficult to deploy and often take a long time to transit. Although the Corps’ new ship-to-shore connectors are capable of carrying 70 ton Abrams tanks from ship to ship, it will still be difficult to muster enough Abrams tanks for any type of amphibious assault, and they lack the speed and mobility to keep pace with tactical vehicles or wheeled combat vehicles once on land. Accordingly, as part of a determined effort to migrate the service to more expeditionary and inter-domain combat operations, the Corps is increasing the number of its new fleet of incoming amphibious combat vehicles, a move that, according to Navy officials, is linked to service plans. to cede reservoirs.

“The plan for the ACV is to increase the purchase from 72 to 92 vehicles in fiscal year 22. And so the tank divestiture is one of them. However, I wouldn’t say that’s the only part of it, ”Navy Assistant Under Secretary for Budget John Gumbleton told reporters, according to a Pentagon transcript.

The ACV is an armed 8X8 wheeled combat vehicle designed in part to improve maneuverability of land attack and prolong amphibious assaults more inland. A key element of this evolving strategic push is also related to the advent of lighter and transportable ammunition, such as anti-tank weapons, increasingly able to integrate with fast vehicles. This means that the Corps can still operate with powerful anti-armor firepower, while doing so more quickly in a more agile, deployable, and expeditionary manner. Part of this concept of operations is also most likely linked to the advent of the F-35B which provides 5th generation close air support to amphibious forces on land or sea, which when combined with new types of land-sea-air multi-domain network connectivity, brings massive benefits such as firepower and surveillance technologies to amphibious assault.

New ACV configuration is aligned with an emerging Navy-Marine Corps amphibious assault strategy that, among other things, sees a possible need for prolonged penetration into land defenses following the capture of an initial beachhead. Yet another aspect of this is that the ACV is specially designed for enhanced ground attacks to allow faster advances to attack amphibious forces pending further reinforcement.

Kris Osborn is the editor of Defense for the National Interest. Osborn previously served in the Pentagon as a highly trained expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army – Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. Osborn also worked as an on-air presenter and military specialist on national television networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also holds an MA in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

Image: Reuters.