Making Expeditionary Force 21 Work by Major Scott Kinner, USMC (Ret.), Proceedings
In March 2014, the Marine Corps published a new operating concept, Expeditionary Force 21 (EF21) , a vision of change that arguably ranks in importance with the Corps’ 1987 shift to maneuver warfare and the earlier 1934 publication of the Tentative Manual for Landing Operations . Like the prescient focus on amphibious operations prior to World War II, and the 1980s recognition that the Corps needed to avoid throwing itself across beaches directly into enemy strengths, EF21 posits that the Marines must find new ways to fight in the complex operational environment of the 21st century.
Like its predecessors, it also risks failure…