Marines Update Force Design 2030

One of outgoing Marine Corps Commandant David Berger’s remaining administrative duties was approving t he annual update of Force Design 2030. The concise, 20-page document contains high-level, policy items of interest for the broader military, industry, academic simulation and training community. Don’t look for service investment amounts for specific programs and systems in this document – that and related information will be forthcoming in the FY2024 Pentagon budget.

Berger will retire this summer with one accomplishment having been the elevation of learning – training and education – across the service’s portfolio.

This January the service published a high-level compendium to Force Design 2030: Training and Education 2030

A key T&E document underpinning is Project Tripoli, the Marine Corps training initiative that “will enable greater experimentation with FD2030 concepts and capabilities.” A key takeaway from the nascent Project Tripoli is that it is envisioned as a Marine Corps and joint “live, virtual, and constructive training environment (LVC-TE) that allows the simultaneous training of geographically dispersed units and/or training on cost-prohibitive or sensitive capabilities.” While LVC-TE’s first iteration remains scheduled to deploy to Twentynine Palms, California in fiscal year 2023, by FY25 the LVC-TE will be deployed to five Marine Corps installations, establishing an enterprise-level capability. Conceptually, the service will further integrate coalition partners into the LVC-TE construct.

As Project Tripoli takes shape the service is already expanding the envelope on its training capabilities to meet the tenets of FD2030, serving as a naval expeditionary force-in-readiness and operating inside actively contested maritime spaces in support of joint campaigns – with a specific focus on the Pacific theatre of operations. Earlier this year, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment completed the first service-level force-on-force training exercise designed to assess its ability to operate as a distributed naval expeditionary force.

Of great interest to the Simulation & Training community will be the budget and program against S&T lines in the Marine Corps’ share of the FY24 DoD budget. MS&T will file updates and analysis on key parts of the budget documents as they reach major milestones in their journey through the enactment process.