The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) modded with the Pack-Rack system is demonstrated on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Feb. 2, 2021.

United States Marine Corps experiments show lightweight vehicles mounted with long-range weapons can remove enemy tanks at a distance 15 to twenty times greater than a Marine tank could, a top general said in the week .

The anti-tank mission was one among the examples cited by Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, deputy commandant for combat development and integration, for a way the service is reshaping to make a "light, lethal and austere" force by the top of the last decade .

Smith's comments, made Wednesday at the International Armoured Vehicles Conference hosted by Defence IQ, were first reported by USNI News.

The United States Marine Corps began divesting its heavy tanks last year, following guidance from Commandant Gen. David Berger. enforcement , cannon artillery, infantry and traditional aircraft units also are being cut or restructured, and officials expect to chop 12,000 Marines from the service's troop strength by 2030.

It's beat preparation for a future battlefield where U.S. forces expect to face more conventional  forces with capabilities almost like their own.

A Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) sits at the Fort McCoy Airfield during Operation Cold Steel II at Fort McCoy, Wis., March 11, 2018

To combat these "near-peer adversaries," the Marines could employ groups of about 75 Marines on the primary island chain off the coast of mainland Asia and outfitted with their own aircraft and surface ships to maneuver quickly and keep their enemy's resources engaged trying to hunt them down.

"In the past, you'd think, 'Well, there's 75 Marines in location X, they are not a threat," Smith said, as quoted by USNI News. But "if I can sink one among your billion-and-a-half-dollar warships with a one-and-a-half-million-dollar missile, i'm a threat."

that sort of capability "may change calculus , if I can do this and rapidly move using things like our Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and make it incredibly hard for you to seek out me," Smith said. "You need to respect that very small unit, of which we'll have dozens and dozens and dozens placed strategically."

U.S. forces have witnessed that sort of imbalance firsthand over the past 20 years, as insurgents used cheap improvised bombs to kill or wound troops and disable their expensive hardware.

Now, tiny drones which will be easily purchased and weaponized pose the best tactical threat to U.S. forces since the roadside bombs began proliferating, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, said in the week .

The Marines decide to use more drones and robotics themselves for combat, also as for resupplying food, water and munitions, and as potential decoys, Smith said.

A nimbler United States Marine Corps , capable of hit-and-run style tactics, would deduct the "luxury" an enemy may need of focusing its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on "a few key warships or a couple of key larger formations who could also be closing in on the world ," he said.

The service is fielding long-range precision weapons which will be fired from mobile platforms like the JLTV and aircraft, also as ground-based anti-ship missiles it could use to prevent enemies many miles from a bit of contested territory. that might release Navy ships to specialise in controlling the ocean , Smith said.


But while experiments have shown that a JLTV could "kill armor" at far greater distances than a tank, Smith said the service didn't plan to divest its hulking M1A1 Abrams fleet because they weren't good tank-killers. Rather, it is a matter of logistics.

"We can kill armor formations at longer ranges using additional and other resources without incurring a 74-ton challenge trying to urge that to a shore, or to urge it from the us into the fight," he said. "You simply cannot be there in time."

Still, the Corps' changes are criticized by some tankers, like former Marine armor officer Dan Grazier, a military fellow at the nonprofit watchdog Project on Government Oversight, who spoke to Stars and Stripes last fall about his misgivings about the redesign's rationale.

"This whole idea of gearing the United States Marine Corps entirely toward fighting an island campaign against China, i feel is greatly misguided, not least because the type of conflict that envisions is  extremely unlikely," Grazier said.