More is needed to turn the Marine Corps' aspirations into reality

The opening sentence in the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ October 2025 Force Design update asserts: “The Marine Corps is a globally responsive, lethal, and resilient combined-armed naval expeditionary force that projects power from sea to land and land to sea, fighting as a Marine Air Ground Task Force across all domains in contested environments to deter, deny, and defeat adversaries.” This statement is aspirational. It does not reflect the current state of the Marine C