The Marine Corps' new littoral regiment is less than two years old and growing as the service contends with how to resupply and sustain it in the vast Pacific region, where China's military influence is casting an increasing shadow.
Col. Peter Eltringham, commander of the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, said in an interview with reporters Tuesday that logistics will be a key challenge that Marines will have to overcome, given the proliferation of drones, missiles and China's reach. The regiment was established in late 2023 and recently received the final element of its three-unit concept last month, Military.com previously reported.
The 12th MLR, one of the service's latest answers to China's Pacific aims and the region's vast environment, is uniquely capable of providing the Marine Corps a low-profile, rapid-response unit designed to be "hard to find," Eltringham said.
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But as the service contends with abysmally low readiness rates for the Navy's amphibious warships, which are meant to transport Marine expeditionary units and supplies to the fight in the Pacific, the 12th MLR intends to remain "dispersed" across the region's countless archipelagos and isles to support combat operations there.
With that, comes the challenge of logistics, which Eltrigham said "is going to be complicated by the adversary's ability to influence" the Pacific.
Marines tasked with explosive ordnance disposal, supply, engineering and beach landing support can "become a target" should they be seen during a major conflict with China, given that Beijing's wartime aims would include disrupting supply chains and maritime routes.
"Those challenges are very real," Eltringham said, alluding to China's ability to potentially deploy drone swarms and ballistic missiles directed at supply lines and other key capabilities. "I need them to be survivable," he added, alluding to the Marines tasked with logistics and other support roles amid a potential conflict in the Pacific.
The 12th MLR is made up of three subordinate units: a littoral combat team; anti-air battalion; and a logistics battalion, which would work in remote areas to resupply and support the other teams.
"Military logistics will be imperative for operational readiness and sustainment in any potential conflict with the People’s Republic of China," according to a Georgetown University Center for Security Studies article from last year. "Successful logistics in the Indo-Pacific requires speed and resilience as the region is a dispersed archipelago of states plagued by the People Liberation Army's military aggression."
Military.com previously reported on the 3rd MLR, one of the other new units oriented toward a Pacific fight, and leaders noted last year that logistics was a critical part of their training and required Marines to use the environment around them to thrive.
The 12th MLR is no different, according to Eltringham.
"They put us in a situation where we are without communication or without logistical resupply for sustained periods of time, so that we've got to be ready, and those Marines have got to be ready to remain sustainable -- internal to themselves -- for prolonged periods of time," he said.
"That's working locally," he added. "That's working within the environment that they have," noting that true "jungle warfare training" will give them the ability to do that "until we can get to them."
Eltringham said that the logistics team will have to work its supply missions from airfields, expeditionary airfields, landing sites, beach zones, ports and other various locations as the broader unit is dispersed across the Pacific.
The 12th MLR is based out of Okinawa, Japan, and is known to the Marine Corps as a "stand-in force," meaning that -- unlike most Marine expeditionary units -- the MLR remains in the Pacific theater.
Eltringham also said that Marines in the region would be aided by the Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel, or ALPV -- dubbed the "narco-boat" -- for resupply. Military.com previously reported that Marines training in the area were also using platoon water purification systems, or PWPS, a piece of equipment that can produce up to 15 gallons of water per hour from sources found in the environment.
"I think what we owe those Marines is the ability to train on that gear and then be able to adapt as quickly as possible," Eltringham said. "Because I think we can all anticipate the constraints provided in that contested environment."
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