Compass Points - Typhoon
The typhoon of lost capabilities has arrived.
Compass Points - Typhoon
The typhoon of lost capabilities has arrived.
June 1, 2026
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As negotiations continue between the US and Iran, half a world away, the Japanese island of Okinawa, is bracing for Typhoon Jangmi, the island’s first major typhoon in three years.
The impact of Jangmi will not be known for some time, but in another sense, there is already a typhoon battering the US Marine Corps today. It is a typhoon of missing capabilities.
As the US Marine 22nd MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) heads home from the Caribbean after a long deployment, where is the next MEU to take the place of the 22nd MEU? The US is committed to bolstering US defense presence in the Caribbean. There has been much recent speculation about the need for more US Marines in Cuba, for example. Clearly the US needs another MEU to rotate into the Caribbean.
There is only one problem, there is no Marine MEU on Navy amphibious ships that can deploy to the Caribbean right now. The cupboard is bare.
Instead of a fully capable, combined arms Marine MEU on Navy amphibious ships, the Marine Corps is sending out a much less capable SPMAGTF (Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force) which has been given the imposing name, Littoral Combat Force 24.
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A specialized group of Marines operating in SOUTHCOM will now support Operation Southern Spear, the U.S. campaign to stop maritime drug trafficking, as the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit heads home.
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit will operate as Littoral Combat Force-24, providing a Marine Air-Ground Task Force that will work under the Joint Task Force Southern Spear, the Marine Corps announced Friday. The group of Marines and sailors are taking over the duties of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, which has been embarked on the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group for nearly 10 months.
LCF-24 will serve as the “immediate crisis response force” in SOUTHCOM, according to a Marine Corps news release. LCF-24 can conduct maritime interdiction operations, as well as perform embassy reinforcement and tactical recovery of aircraft crew. The unit will also be able to participate in humanitarian efforts, if required.
The littoral combat force is different from a typical MEU deployment with an amphibious ready group. Instead of operating from a three-ship ARG, the specialized MAGTF will be spread across the region, with a headquarters and shore-based nodes, including in Puerto Rico and amphibious transport dock USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28), a Joint Task Force-Southern Spear spokesperson told USNI News. A specialized group of Marines operating in SOUTHCOM will now support Operation Southern Spear, the U.S. campaign to stop maritime drug trafficking, as the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit heads home.
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit will operate as Littoral Combat Force-24, providing a Marine Air-Ground Task Force that will work under the Joint Task Force Southern Spear, the Marine Corps announced Friday. The group of Marines and sailors are taking over the duties of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, which has been embarked on the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group for nearly 10 months.
LCF-24 will serve as the “immediate crisis response force” in SOUTHCOM, according to a Marine Corps news release. LCF-24 can conduct maritime interdiction operations, as well as perform embassy reinforcement and tactical recovery of aircraft crew. The unit will also be able to participate in humanitarian efforts, if required.
The littoral combat force is different from a typical MEU deployment with an amphibious ready group. Instead of operating from a three-ship ARG, the specialized MAGTF will be spread across the region, with a headquarters and shore-based nodes, including in Puerto Rico and amphibious transport dock USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28), a Joint Task Force-Southern Spear spokesperson told USNI News.
-- USNI News
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Is the LCF-24 the same as a Marine MEU on Navy amphibious ships? Absolutely not. Even Lt. Gen. Jay Bargeron, the deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, has been quoted,
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And make no mistake, that’s no ARG/MEU. That is a MEU. It’s sub-optimized, but it will be available to provide some capability.
-- Lt. Gen. Jay Bargeron quoted by USNI news
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If the Navy and Marine Corps are serious about getting more ships on the water, there are ships that could be used. Large ESBs and smaller EPFs are available now.
There are more than a dozen Expeditionary Fast Transports already constructed and ready for use today. A pair of the ships could be assigned to each regional Combatant Commander and remain home-ported in each region. Marine Special Purpose MAGTFs could fly in to keep the ships always forward deployed 24/7/365. When any crisis erupts, the regional Combatant Commanders would have their own Marines always available in their region to rapid crisis response. The Expeditionary Fast Transports could be augmented with larger Expeditionary Sea Bases, also available now.
Where are these Expeditionary Fast Transports and Expeditionary Sea Bases that could be put to use today? Most of them are rusting away at Military Sealift Command. It is time for the US Marines to stop focusing on putting Marine sensor and missile units on islands off the coast of China, and focus instead on getting more Marine MAGTFs continuously forward deployed in every region of the world.
It is not only that the Navy amphibious ships needed by Marines, are not available. There is also the problem that the Marine Corps has reduced or eliminated so much of its own combined arms capabilities, including armor, air, infantry, artillery, engineering, snipers, and more.
Compass Points salutes the Marines and sailors of Littoral Combat Force 24. The young Marines of LCF-24 are ready for whatever mission is assigned. Unfortunately, it is very senior Marines who have left the young Marines without all the ships, or all the combined arms capabilities they may need now.
The senior leaders of the Navy and Marine need to act quickly to restore, enhance, and upgrade all the amphibious warships, pre-positioning ships, and combined arms capabilities that are needed today to accomplish the missions of tomorrow.
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USNI New - 05/29/2006
Specialized Group of 1,300 Marines, Sailors Take Over SOUTHCOM Duties As 22nd MEU Heads Home
By Heather Mongilio
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Compass Points - More Ships Now
Getting more Marines on more oceans now.
May 13, 2026
marinecorpscompasspoints.substack.com/p/compass-points-more-ships-now
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So the senior leadership walked away from the time-honored SPMAGTF in a feeble attempt to bestow relevancy on Force Design and EABO.
The folks who thought up the name “Littoral Combat Force” would do well to remember this quote from Captain John W. Thomason, Jr.’s book “Fix Bayonets”: “There is nothing particularly glorious about sweaty fellows, laden with killing tools, going along to fight. And yet-such a column represents a great deal more than 28,000 individuals mustered into a division. All that is behind those men is in that column too: the old battles, long forgotten, that secured our nation - - Brandywine and Trenton and Yorktown, San Jacinto and Chapultepec, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Antietam, El Caney; scores of skirmishes, far off, such as the Marines have nearly every year in which a man can be killed as dead as ever a chap in the Argonne; traditions of things endured and things accomplished, such as regiments hand down forever…”
And maybe the senior leadership should have read Thomason’s book before changing the name of the 3rd Marines to the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment and the 12th Marines to the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment.
Sad, very sad.
Well, looking for the pony in a horse stall full of hobucky, or in this case FD something or other, which was full of missiles, that didn't exist, and "sensors" human or otherwise, we hit upon the potential that there is a pony of sorts to found after all; with the use of LCF-24, ergo the Southcom commander at least has something to work with, verses nothing; as with the EurCom commander when he asked for help in Turkey with humanitarian relief after a catastrophic earthquake rocked that nation. (Who for the moment anyway is still a member of NATO) For a whole host of reasons the Corps could not respond. While The Littoral Combat Force, may seem a little unwieldy, it is a response force. Marines from roughly 1898 to 1939 operated with a wide swath of capabilities to quell revolutions, put down insurrections, support Sea Lines of Open Communication (SLOC's) and so on and so forth in the Caribbean Basin. Monroe Doctrine basically enforced. Back to the future, it also proves the point that Generals Wilson and Barrow pivoted to, during their tenures. 6 MAGTF MEB's. 6 MEB's could be composited into 3 MEF's. Coverage for the Pacific, Atlantic and 1 for the sake of argument for that "something" that always comes up. If there were ever a time for senior level aka Flag leadership to get off the dime and take advantage of whatever ships are available to prove we are flexible and able in our thinking, to project force, now is that time. Let's hope some courage can be found and brave ideas beyond the LCF are brought forward. MAGTF's are still the best bang per buck in the War Department arsenal. Time to take back our seat at the planning table as a major contributor. We have 3 seconds and 2 just died. Better hurry up!