Japanese defense forces can now deploy to the Philippines. “The new defense agreement allows Japan to deploy its forces for humanitarian missions and disaster response in the Philippines, an arrangement Japan hopes to eventually upgrade to include joint military training, cooperation and mutual visits, Japanese officials said.”
- The US and Japan said in January that a Marine Littoral Regiment will be set up in Japan by 2025.
- A Marine Littoral Regiment will also hold a major exercise in the northern Philippines this spring.
- Those moves reflect the US’s focus on being able to operate around Pacific in a war with China.
Luzon is now “key terrain” in China fight
This month, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III announced that a Marine artillery regiment based on the Japanese island of Okinawa would be reorganized as a Marine Littoral Regiment by 2025 and be outfitted with “advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance” capabilities and anti-ship weaponry that is “relevant to the current and future threat environments.”
That unit, the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, is the second of three Marine Littoral Regiments planned for the Indo-Pacific region, the first of which was activated in March 2022 and is based in Hawaii. Within weeks of its activation, the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment was participating in the US-Philippine military exercise Balikatan. …
In the past, Balikatan has taken place in the central Philippines, Brady said. “This time we were way up north, in Cagayan in northern Luzon, in areas like Aparri and … looking more toward the Luzon Straits.” …
The Marine Littoral Regiment is an element of Force Design 2030 … As part of that plan, the Corps has shed “heavy things” like tanks and refocused on naval expeditionary operations — a shift epitomized by the MLR, which is meant to be mobile and hard to detect when operating from austere locations in maritime areas during times of tension or conflict and capable of coordination with other forces.
The Corps is still refining the regiment’s design but says it will be composed of 1,800 to 2,000 personnel and be “task organized” around an infantry battalion and an anti-ship missile battery and be able to support smaller units as they disperse and conduct missions like long-range anti-ship strikes, arming and refueling aircraft, air-defense operations, and intelligence-gathering. …
The MLR is in keeping with the concept of “stand-in forces” that live and work within range of an adversary’s weapons, like in Okinawa, and it reflects the Corps’ emphasis on a new operating environment and a new threat — China’s large, sophisticated military — after two decades of focusing on land-based operations against smaller, less capable foes.“The current threats that are out there require you to be lighter, more mobile, and have a lower signature or you can’t even start the fight,” Gen. Eric Smith, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, said at a think-tank event in July.
The Corps has long used the Marine Air-Ground Task Force as its main formation. MAGTFs, as they’re known, require organizing, training, and deploying air defense, artillery, infantry, and aircraft units, which can take weeks or months, Smith said in response to a question from Insider.
“You don’t have six months when you have limited, unambiguous warning from a peer adversary, a pacing threat like China. You may have a number of days before you have to respond,” Smith said.
US Marines HMARS Luzon Philippines
US Marines deploy High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems in northern Luzon during Balikatan 22 in April 2022. US Marine Corps/Sgt. Melanye Martinez
The littoral regiment “must live, eat, sleep, breathe as a task-organized unit to be able to go tomorrow or tonight. That’s the difference in a stand-in force, and that’s exactly what 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment is designed to do and how they operated throughout Luzon” during Balitikan 2022, Smith addedDuring that exercise, Marines did amphibious landings in northern Luzon and trained with Philippine marines to conduct coastal-defense operations, including by providing “real-time targeting data” to High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems that were standing-in for the Corps’ new Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, a mobile anti-ship missile launcher. …
There could be similar drills during the upcoming Balitikan exercise, which will include operations on the islands of Fuga and Calayan off of northern Luzon and on Batanes in the Bashi Channel.
The MLR will employ three subordinate elements:
• a Littoral Combat Team
• a Littoral Anti-Air Battalion
• a Combat Logistics Battalion
The LCT will be task organized around an infantry battalion along with an anti-ship missile battery. It is designed to provide the basis for employing multiple platoon-reinforced-size expeditionary advanced base sites that can host and enable a variety of missions such as long-range anti-ship fires, forward arming and refueling of aircraft, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance of key maritime terrain, and air-defense and early warning.
The Littoral Anti-Air Battalion is designed to provide air defense, air surveillance and early warning, air control, and forward rearming and refueling capabilities.
The Combat Logistics Battalion provides tactical logistics support to the MLR by resupplying expeditionary advanced base sites, managing cache sites, and connecting to higher-level logistics providers. It provides expanded purchasing authorities, limited Role II medical forces, distribution of ammunition and fuel, and field level maintenance.
The MLR commands and controls these subordinate organizations via a robust regimental headquarters with enhanced signals and human intelligence, reconnaissance, communications, logistics planning, civil affairs, cyber, and information operations capabilities.