Can Marines Still Storm Beaches Without Amphibious Ships?

TUESDAY PDB – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – The ongoing fight between the Pentagon/Navy and the Marines over its future amphibious warfighting capability is getting hotter. The Navy's 2024 plan backs long-range weapons, shrinks amphibious fleet.

The Navy and Marine Corps' fiscal 2024 budget request would invest in long-range missiles and the platforms that shoot them — surface combatants, fighter jets and nimble Marine Corps units — while slashing the amphibious ship fleet.

Unacceptable: Marines are ready to fight tonight — about the amphib budget. A Marine Corps spokesman forcefully pushed back against the new budget request's failure to seek new amphibious warships.

While the Marines are radically transforming themselves to lead a future island-hopping fight with China, amphibious ships remain key to their overall mission.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here's a roundup of other developing stories.

Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – the PDB:

POLITICS & DEFENSE BUDGET

DoD keeps Ukraine aid out of its budget, punting to divided Congress. Sending military aid to Ukraine has been a top Pentagon's priority for more than a year, but officials left it out of the new budget request and will continue to seek emergency funding from Congress.

Pentagon budget aims to max munitions production, make multiyear buys. The goal is to rev up the munitions industrial base and max out production lines for several top priority missiles.

NATIONAL SECURITY

More is needed to deter states that take American hostages. Foreign governments are illegally detaining more U.S. citizens than are terror groups.

CHINA THREAT

US-sanctioned general to become public face of China's growing military. General Li Shangfu, named China's new defense minister, is a veteran of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) modernization effort – a drive that led the U.S. to sanction him over the acquisition of weapons from Russia.

New UK defense guidance sharpens criticism of China. China will pose an “epoch-defining challenge” to Britain in the future, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says in new guidance for his government's defense strategy.

Leaders unveil a circuitous path to nuke-powered Australian subs. U.S., British and Australian leaders are slated to kick off a decades-long project aimed at eventually fielding a joint fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to check China's growing military in the Asia-Pacific region.

How the submarine deal fits into the complex US strategy for the Pacific. The AUKUS partnership is a “present at the creation” moment for U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific. Despite China's fears, the agreement isn't a NATO-style containment pact. It's the hub of something more flexible and adaptive.

RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 384. The International Criminal Court is close to opening war crimes cases and issuing arrest warrants against several Russians accused of being responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

Ukraine short of skilled troops and munitions as losses, pessimism grow. Ukraine's military has been degraded by a year of heavy casualties. Front-line units are now struggling with new, poorly trained troops and a shortage of ammunition.

NORTH KOREA THREAT

North Korea launches 2 ballistic missiles toward sea. The two short-range ballistic missiles were test-fired toward its eastern waters Tuesday in Pyongyang's second show of force this week, a day after the beginning of U.S.-South Korean military drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal.

Monitoring missile launches a ‘complex beast,' says Space Force commander in South Korea. U.S. Space Forces Korea, just three months old and the newest command in the Space Force, is finding a clear role amid new threats from North Korea.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

WE'RE BAAACK! – Philippine-US annual military drills will be biggest ever. The massive war games highlight greatly improved ties with the Western power under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

UK $6 billion defense boost targets atomic submarines, weapons top-up. Defense spending is getting a £5 billion ($6 billion) boost, but most of the cash has been earmarked for nuclear programs and rebuilding depleted weapons stocks rather than addressing wider capability gaps in the armed forces.

SPACE THREAT

Space Force's $30 billion budget request focuses on development. Its budget request for fiscal 2024 is 13% higher than what Congress enacted last year and calls for continued growth in its missile tracking, launch and satellite communications missions.

BIDEN AFGHAN DISASTER

America must uphold our promise to Afghan allies. The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week held its first hearing on the massively botched August 2021 Biden retreat from Afghanistan. The bulk of the hearing focused on the plight of Afghans who fought alongside us, more than 150,000 of whom were abandoned by Team Biden and continue to be hunted by the Taliban.

US MILITARY

The Army keeps getting smaller. The Army's end strength continues to decrease under its most recent budget request.

Military services grappling with filling their ranks in budget request. The White House budget is calling for more troops with next year's budget, but that hoped-for result is tempered by the reality that low national unemployment and a shrinking pool of young people interested in serving (AND A WOKE PENTAGON ALIENATING TRADITIONAL RECRUITS) means it's harder and harder to recruit.

Corps plans to spend more money on retaining, training Marines. The Marine Corps hopes to spend more in fiscal year 2024 on retaining and training its Marines, while pressing ahead with efforts to modernize the force.

END of PDB

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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