New Marine Leader Outlines Corps Future

The man selected to become the next commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps said Monday that the nation’s armed services will face dramatic changes in coming years, and he urged the Marines and Navy to further coordinate their forces to maximize power and make up for cuts in troops and equipment.

Lt. General Carl E. Mundy Jr. said the Navy’s longstanding focus on preparing for battle at sea with the Soviet Union has been changed to recognize that wars will likely be regional conflicts fought on land, such as in the Persian Gulf War. To deploy military power rapidly and forcefully will require an integrated force aboard ships.

“They (the ships) are sea bases from which we can manage things around the world,” said Mundy, who is expected to succeed Gen. Alfred M. Gray as Corps commandant July 1.

The ships will function as bases from which Marines, their aircraft and landing craft will be deployed for action, he said. In the Persian Gulf War, thousands of Marines and tons of equipment were aboard Navy ships that sat off the Kuwaiti coast for months.

“We will be smaller,” Mundy said at the annual meeting of the Navy League of the United States. He summarized a paper recently written by the secretary of the Navy and the commandant of the Marine Corps outlining the future of the Navy, which includes the Marine Corps.

“We will have fewer ships and we will have fewer Marines and we will have fewer airplanes,” Mundy said in his first public remarks since President Bush named him this month the 30th Marine Corps commandant. He is expected to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate shortly.

Mundy, 55, is the commanding general of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Marine Force based in Norfolk, Va., which is responsible for the European operations. As commandant of the Marine Corps, Mundy will be at the helm of the 200,000 Marines and bases in Japan, Hawaii and the United States.

In an interview with The Times, Mundy said Congress has a mandate to “downsize the force” in order to operate a more affordable armed services.

Because of the military’s success in Operation Desert Storm, Mundy thinks the defense cuts will not be as drastic as they might otherwise have been. He said the public was able to watch the latest military technology in action in Iraq and see equipment built with taxpayers money work effectively.

Mundy said the Corps is faced with a problem of replacing its medium-lift helicopters, which are used to move Marines from ships to shore or from one position to another on land. He called it the “cornerstone helicopter” for Marine battlefield mobility.

Mundy said the V-22 Osprey, a craft that takes off like a helicopter and flies like an airplane, was once thought to be the replacement for the 1960s vintage CH-46E Sea Knights. But, he said, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney has made it clear that the Osprey is too costly.