Weighed down by heavy hardware, Marine brigades go on a diet.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Marine Corps equipment

Shortly after being sworn in as commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Amos drew up an extensive to-do list as part of the "planning guidance" that lays out his vision for the future.

About halfway down the list is a directive to "lighten the MAGTF," or marine air-ground task force--the organization that is at the heart of any Marine Corps combat deployment.

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Amos is not the first commandant who has expressed a desire to lighten the force. The idea that marine units are becoming so weighed down by equipment they are beginning to resemble the Army has been an irritant to Marine Corps' senior leaders for several years. If a contingent of combat-ready marines can't be quickly loaded on ships and deployed to a war zone, then the Marine Corps ceases to be "expeditionary" and becomes a conventional land army, the reasoning goes.

Amos wants to see a detailed plan by March 11 for how the Marine Corps will reduce the size and weight of brigades and expeditionary units so that "they will fit within likely lift constraints," he wrote in the commandant's guidance. The timeline for executing the plan is between 2011 and 2013.

Amos' marching orders essentially boil down to this: A Marine Expeditionary Brigade (with as many as 15,000 marines and sailors) with all its weapons, ground vehicles, aircraft and support equipment must be able to fit in 15 amphibious warships. According to unofficial accounts, a MEB today would be too heavy to meet that threshold. One estimate is that moving a brigade requires at least 17 ships.

For marine war-fighting units, becoming lighter will mean having to make tough choices about what equipment is really necessary, says Brig. Gen. Christopher S. Owens, deputy commanding general of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

"Over the last 10 years, we have introduced a lot of new equipment into the Marine Corps, some of it heavy," Owens says during a conference call with reporters. Some weaponry, such as artillery, has actually become lighter in recent years. But armored trucks and aircraft such as the V-22 Osprey--which come with a large load of support equipment--have piled on significant amounts of weight on the force, Owens says.

The commandant's orders to lighten the MAGTF are being taken seriously, he says. Planners at Camp Lejeune are drawing up scenarios for how much equipment a unit would need for a given mission. What typically will drive those decisions is how much cargo...