US Marines acquire small fleet to support experiments

The U.S. Marine Corps is pursuing the rapid acquisition of small expeditionary craft to support its Force Design 2030 pilot effort.

Force Design 2030 is a project to create reserve, lethal and highly mobile units for operations in the enemy’s “combat zone”.

The small boats will reportedly participate in service-level experiments, including littoral operations, reconnaissance and signature management.

They will also help provide additional data for a new and relevant opportunity in the future.

“This is a great opportunity for us here in the Marine Corps Reserve to help collect data for the Force Design training campaign,” said a U.S. Marine Corps spokesman. Douglas Clark said.

“We are looking at small commercial industry boats to see what options we can use to experiment and gain experience to better understand how to conduct operations in coastal areas.”

Acquisition process

According to the service, four suppliers of tactical watercraft have expressed interest in the acquisition and have presented their ships to the 4th Amphibious Assault Battalion.

They also responded to inquiries and conducted on-water demonstrations to demonstrate the features and capabilities of their products.

Navy and Marine Corps experts are now evaluating the proposals and analyzing other possible acquisitions.

The next stage of the process involves awarding contracts and spending 24 months conducting concept and engineering experiments.