Marines to modernize training facilities.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

The Marine Corps will need to modernize its training facilities and equipment as it prepares for future battles.

As outlined in the Marine Corps' new operating concept, "How an Expeditionary Force Operates in the 21st Century," the service will rely heavily on maneuver warfare and fighting as a combined arms force as it looks toward battles of 2025 and beyond, said Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, commanding general of the Marine Corps' Combat Development Command and deputy commandant of combat development and integration.

The service will have to "distribute our force in smaller units to be able to disperse, to be able to be less targeted by the enemy and be able to continuously move, because if we're not moving you're going to be targeted very quickly," Walsh said during an industry conference in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Smaller units will need to move rapidly and come together quickly if needed. Marines will have to fight in a variety of contested environments including the littorals and in megacities, which are poised to rapidly grow by 2025, he said.

All of this will have an affect on how Marines train.

In the Marine Corps operating concept--or the MOC--the service said it would need to better train and educate Marines to deal with multi-faceted and complicated environments, including urban environments.

"We recognize that operations in urban areas are the most likely to occur and the most dangerous. Urban areas are complex terrain, which emphasizes the need to maneuver in the human dimension of conflict. This requires a thorough understanding of the relationships, culture, politics and objectives of the people and organizations that populate the battle space," the operating concept said.

Urban environments can "soak up personnel resources in labor-intensive ground" missions, it said.

The service will need to train to address the full degree of compartmentalization, including city blocks, streets, buildings, sewers and tunnels, it said.

Capt. Joshua Pena, a spokesman for Marine Corps Training and Education Command, said the service would have to "evolve" to dominate urban environments.

"Our approach to training must account for all aspects of complex terrain and we will have to be creative in how we combine the physical and cognitive domains to maximize our current training venues at all levels," he said in an email.

Marines will face asymmetric threats, nonlinear battlefields and unclear delineation between combatants and noncombatants in these...