Small Wars Journal

Army Leaders Commit to Keeping Marines in Close Combat Task Force

Wed, 03/04/2020 - 7:17am

Army Leaders Commit to Keeping Marines in Close Combat Task Force by Todd South - Army Times

Top Army leadership assured Congress Tuesday that Marines will continue to be involved in work to transform the infantry, though the Army will likely take control of a former joint service task force.

Last week, a House Armed Services Committee member asked the Navy Secretary and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger about the move, which was recently announced by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, a former Army officer and former Army secretary.

Berger told the committee that the Marines had benefited from recent equipment testing because they were part of the Close Combat Lethality Task Force.

After Esper’s remarks, one of the task force’s founding members, retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales told Military Times that the decision would kill the task force. Scales argued that by putting its control under the Army the move would stifle collaboration between the Marines, Army and various special operations forces across the services.

That, he said, was why former Secretary of Defense James Mattis made the task force fall under his office in the Pentagon…

Read on.