Marine Corps plans to expand force by more than 6,500

The Marine Corps is looking to add more than 6,500 positions across infantry battalions, drone units and air defenses as the service looks to expand over the next five years.

The additional Marines will be spread across 64 initiatives, the service announced in a statement. The Corps is aiming for a 4% end-strength increase by 2031 and an additional 1% increase by 2032.

“By aligning trained Marines with modernized capabilities, the Marine Corps ensures [that] prior and future investments in robotics, precision fires, counter-UAS, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems produce warfighting advantages,” the service said.

The new slots come after the Corps has spent years modernizing. The service offered a restructuring plan in March 2020 known as Force Design 2030. The plan is intended to be a framework to deter threats in the Pacific and around the globe.

Last week, the service announced Ground Combat Element 2040, a strategy outlining how its ground forces will change over the next 15 years.

The Marine Corps said the additions will give the service four wartime advantages — stronger power projection, especially in the Pacific; integrated autonomous and robotic systems; expanded training pipelines; and more specialized Marines in the force.

The service will enlarge infantry formations, adding Marines to 19 infantry battalions and two littoral combat teams to create heavy gun platoons and expand precision fires, along with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

Each Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) will gain a robotics and autonomous systems company, and the service will establish its second Small Unmanned Aircraft System Schoolhouse at School of Infantry-West at Camp Pendleton, Calif., for training in the small unmanned aircraft system specialty.

Installations are also slated to get their own counter-drone capabilities to protect against the threat of adversarial drones.

The announcement creates new occupational specialties, including the 0315 Scout specialty. The service previously stated the scouts will populate a 26-Marine scout platoon within each infantry battalion and the scout teams within the light armored reconnaissance battalion.

“The establishment of the 0315 Scout MOS is a critical step in the modernization of our infantry battalions,” Lt. Gen. Jay Bargeron, the deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, said in a June 30 statement. “This professional, purpose-built force will provide commanders with the organic reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities essential for success on the future battlefield.”

It also creates a career path for digital operations, making the 0673 identifier a primary military occupational specialty.