The Marines are slated to receive the first batches of four dozen mobile fires and missile platforms key to the Corps’ plans to fight dispersed across multiple islands alongside the Navy.
Between now and March 2026, the Corps will receive batches of its new Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, which includes a Naval Strike Missile mounted on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle platform with semi-autonomous and autonomous capabilities to launch remotely.
The system provides coverage for Navy and partner vessels from coastal positions and gives joint forces combined land and sea targeting options. It is the Corps’ first modern ship-killing missile.
The first six systems were fielded to the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment in November, Nick Pierce, product manager for NMESIS at Marine Corps Systems Command, told Marine Corps Times ahead of the annual Modern Day Marine exposition.
RELATED
“Third MLR has an enhanced sea denial capability and is positioned at the forefront of strategic transformation,” Lt. Col. Timothy Love, 3rd Littoral Combat Team commander, said in a November release.
The 3rd MLR is the Corps’ first littoral regiment, a new concept that combines a slimmer infantry battalion, improved radar and sensors and a variety of force and reconnaissance packages to assist joint commanders.
The Hawaii-based unit emerged in 2021. The service has since established the 12th MLR on Okinawa, Japan, with plans for a third rotational regiment on Guam.
Those will begin fielding with six of the NMESIS systems set for the 12th MLR starting in March 2026, Pierce said.
The Marine artillery schoolhouse at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, is also set to receive a system to train Marines.
Those fielded already to 3rd MLR are considered “block 0” and will be replaced with six upgraded “block I” versions with more capabilities, also starting next year.
The upgrade eliminates “swivel chair fires,” in which Marines relay data by hand. Instead, the block I version will have digital fires for faster and more accurate strikes.
In total, the Corps plans to have 261 systems in its inventory by 2033, Pierce said.
Osh Kosh Defense unveiled its new multirocket launch system — the Remotely Operated Ground Unit for Expeditionary Fires, or ROGUE Fires system, which also holds the NMESIS — as another option for the Marine Corps and possibly the Army at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, in March.
The combined system uses the JLTV with remote controls and mounts a Naval Strike Missile on the frame, giving users a mobile missile system in a single package. This aligns with the Marines’ stated role: to island hop and destroy enemy ships and targets ahead of U.S. Navy ships.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
Read the full article here
