Compass Points - Nix NMESIS?
Time for Marine Corps changes.
Compass Points - Nix NMESIS?
Time for Marine Corps changes.
May 19, 2026
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Author and Marine Gary Anderson has written a new article for the American Spectator where he warns that the Marine Corps needs to regain its focus on global crisis response.
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When General Eric Smith became commandant of the Marine Corps, he inherited an organization in the midst of a botched reform that was supposed to transform the Corps from a worldwide force-in-readiness to a China-centric anti-ship missile-firing force in a strategy called Force Design (FD).
. . . Virtually every former commandant — minus Berger — along with retired Marine four stars and three stars have pleaded with Smith to drop FD and bring back the capabilities that made the Marine Corps a worldwide purpose reaction force.
. . . The good news is that several current two- and three-star generals are quietly seething over FD and would kill it if given the chance. Hopefully, one of them will become the next commandant. If that happens, there are many things that need to be changed. A list is provided below:
First, kill Force Design. It was a flawed concept from the beginning. Its centerpiece — the NEMSIS anti-ship missile — is obsolete, too slow, and it has insufficient range to contribute meaningfully to a conflict in the South China Sea. Each of the other services is developing hypersonic anti-ship systems that can far outrange the NEMSIS.
-- Gary Anderson, The American Spectator
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While the Marine Corps continues to drag the NMESIS launcher to various exercises, including the recently completed Balikatan 2026, the NMESIS is still not a capability the Indo-PACOM regional Combatant Commander -- nor any other Combatant Commander -- can rely on.
Meanwhile the Army continues to live fire its missiles in the Pacific and to expand its sensor and missile units.
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HONOLULU — The U.S. Army is continuing to tweak its formations to position the service for success in future fights, with the latest move the establishment of the Multi-Domain Command-Pacific, or MDC-PAC.
. . . While McFarlane acknowledged the Army is still working through organizational details, he did note that the command would merge the 7th ID’s two Stryker brigades and a combat aviation brigade with a multidomain task force — or “forces,” he said — to share fires, space, electronic warfare, cyber and intelligence capabilities with other commands and services throughout the Indo-Pacific.
— Defense News
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The Army is also rapidly expanding its missile magazine.
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HONOLULU — Anduril is slated to deliver at least 3,000 surface-launched cruise missiles to the U.S. Army beginning in 2027, part of an effort to quickly advance affordable munitions procurement at scale.
Over the course of the three-year framework agreement, Anduril will supply the Army with a minimum of 1,000 surface-launched Barracuda-500Ms per year, according to a company release.
-- Military Times
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Other reports indicate the Army will soon begin fielding the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile to the MDTF. The missile has a speed of mach 5 and a range of about 2,000 miles. The MDTF currently fields HIMARS/PrSM rockets, SM-6 missiles, and TLAM (maritime and land attack) missiles.
What the Army is not creating is a sea-based, flexible, expandable, combined arms, air, ground, logistics crisis response force on constant patrol around the globe. That is the middle weight force the US needs to rapidly respond to any crisis. Sadly, while the Nation needs a 24/7/365 middle weight crisis response force, the Marine Corps is not able to provide it today.
The Marine Corps has always continually upgraded its technology. Through all the years and all the changes, the focus of the Marine Corps remained on warfighting.
Beginning in the summer of 2019, however, some senior Marine leaders began to change the focus of the Marine Corps away from being flexible, combined arms, crisis response warfighters, and turn the Marine Corps’ focus instead into serving as a mere sensor node in the joint kill chain. As just another node, Marines would focus on sensing, gathering data, and passing on data.
As Gary Anderson writes, “Virtually every former commandant — minus Berger — along with retired Marine four stars and three stars have pleaded with Smith to drop FD and bring back the capabilities that made the Marine Corps a worldwide purpose reaction force.”
The Nation does not need a Marine Corps of sensor nodes. It needs a Marine Corps of warfighters. Compass Points salutes Gary Anderson and all those working to build a stronger Marine Corps.
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Military Times - 05/15/2026
US Army to receive thousands of Barracuda-500M cruise missiles in Anduril deal
By Cristina Stassis
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Defense News - 05/15/2026
US Army’s 7th Infantry Division, 1st MDTF to merge as Multi-Domain Command-Pacific
By J.D. Simkins
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The American Spectator - 05/18/2026
A To-Do List for the Next Marine Corps Commandant
Saving the Marine Corps may require dismantling the signature reform of the last decade.
by Gary Anderson
https://spectator.org/a-to-do-list-for-the-next-marine-corps-commandant/
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I agree with Colonel Anderson and Master Guns Karam. I cannot understand how anyone can come up through the officer ranks as a Marine, and after twenty or more years wearing the EGA decide the Corps should emulate the island watchers from WWII rather than the fighting Corps we've always been. If Generals Berger and Smith think FD is the way the Corps should go, General Smith needs to be replaced and both he and General Berger should be ignored. Do officers hold blanket parties? Just asking for Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, of whom I am one.
As a retired Master Gunnery Sergeant with 25 years in the Corps, I stand with Colonel Gary Anderson 100%. Force Design 2030 was a mistake from day one. We gutted proven combined arms, artillery, armor, infantry mass, engineers, and logistics, to chase a half-baked SIF/MLR concept that’s still not ready after seven years.
NMESIS is short-ranged and already borderline obsolete. Logistics (the most important piece in this entire puzzle) for rearming in the First Island Chain? Still unsolved. If China hits Taiwan soon, our Marines will be detected, hit with overwhelming firepower, and used as sacrificial lambs.
We built the MAGTF over decades. It took just a few years to tear it down. The right move was always to ADD modern fires to the full combined arms force, not divest to invest. Restore the Corps to pre-Force Design levels, grow us to 180,000 Marines, and give our warriors what they need to win.
Otherwise, and I don’t say this lightly, we might as well roll up the flag and fold into the Army.