Expeditionary maneuver warfare (EMW) is the current concept that guides how the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

organizes, deploys and employs its forces. Utilizing

maneuver warfare Maneuver warfare, or manoeuvre warfare, is a military strategy which seeks to shatter the enemy's overall cohesion and will to fight. Background Maneuver warfare, the use of initiative, originality and the unexpected, combined with a rut ...

and the Marine Corps' expeditionary heritage, EMW emphasizes strategically agile and tactically flexible

Marine Air Ground Task Force Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF, pronounced MAG-TAF) is a term used by the United States Marine Corps to describe the principal organization for all missions across the range of military operations. MAGTFs are a balanced air-ground, combined ar ...

s with the capability to project power against critical points in the

littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas ...

s and beyond. EMW was designed to fit the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

's "Sea Basing" concept as outlined in the

Sea Power 21 In 2003 the United States Navy launched the Sea Power 21 transformation plan in an effort to make the Navy more flexible and more agile to effectively meet future threats. There are three fundamental concepts in Sea Power 21. *Sea Enterprise inv ...

plan. This concept has influenced Marine Corps equipment

procurement Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, Service (economics), services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agenc ...

in recent years, leading to the purchase of the

MV-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a convention ...

Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) (formerly known as the Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAAV)) was an amphibious assault vehicle developed by General Dynamics during the 1990s and 2000s for use by the U.S. Marine Corps. It would ...

F-35B Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide elect ...

CH-53K King Stallion The Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion (Sikorsky S-95) is a heavy-lift cargo helicopter designed and produced by Sikorsky Aircraft. The King Stallion is an evolution of the long running CH-53 series of helicopters which have been in continuous serv ...

and the M777 Lightweight Howitzer. Two areas of current concern are not overburdening the maneuver force with too many supplies (or worse, having them run out) and timely

medical evacuation Medical evacuation, often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to wounded being evacuated from a battlefield, to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of a ...

."Marine Corps Struggles With Sea-Based Supply Lines."
/ref>

Supporting operational concepts

* Ship-to-objective maneuver (STOM) * Enhanced networked sea basing * Sustained operations ashore * Other expeditionary operations

References

Headquarters Marine Corps – pdf

United States Marine Corps {{USMC-stub

Supporting operational concepts

See also

References