Marines provide detailed information on how the new coastal regiment fights in the Pacific

The Marines’ new coastal regiment is less than two years old, and China’s military influence is growing as services debate how to resupply and sustain them in the vast Pacific.

Colonel Peter Eltrillhan, commander of the 12th Navy Coast Regiment, said in an interview with reporters on Tuesday that logistics will be a key challenge that the Marines must overcome, given the spread of drones, missiles and China. Founded in late 2023, the group recently obtained the final elements of its three-unit concept last month.

Eltlingham said the 12th MLR is one of the department’s latest answers to China’s Pacific goals and the vast environment in the region, and it has unique capabilities to provide the Marines with a low-key, fast response unit designed to be “hard to find.”

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However, because the service’s readiness rates for naval amphibious warships are very low, this is to transport marine expeditionary forces and supplies to the Pacific combat, the twelfth MLR intends to maintain “dispersed” the region’s “dispersed” across countless archipelagos and islands in the region.

Therefore, Eltrigham said, “The ability of an opponent to affect the Pacific will complicate this challenge.”

Given that Beijing’s wartime goals will include disrupting supply chains and maritime routes, being responsible for explosive ordnance disposal, supply, engineering and beach landing support can be “targeted” if they are seen during major conflicts with China.

“These challenges are very real,” Eltrillhan said, suggesting China’s potential ability to deploy drone swarms and ballistic missiles targeting supply lines and other critical functions. “I need them to survive,” he added. Marines responsible for logistics and other supporting roles in the potential conflict in the Pacific.

The twelfth MLR consists of three subordinate units: a coastal combat team; an anti-air camp; and a logistics battalion that will work in remote areas to replenish and support other teams.

“Military logistics must be essential for operational preparation and maintenance in any potential conflict with the People’s Republic of China,” Georgetown University for Peculter for Cuseply said in an article last year. “In the Indo-Pacific, successful logistics requires speed and resilience, as the region is a decentralized archipelago of the country plagued by the People’s Liberation Army’s military aggression.”

Martile.com previously reported a third MLR, one of the other new units targeting the Pacific combat, and leaders pointed out last year that logistics was a key part of their training, requiring the Marines to thrive with their surroundings.

According to Eltringham, the twelfth MLR is no exception.

“They put us in a situation where there is no communication or no logistical duration so that we have to be prepared and these Marines must be ready for a long time to remain sustainable – on their own internal – on their internal time.”

“That works locally,” he added. “It works in the environment they have,” and the real “jungle war training” will allow them to “until we can find them.”

Eltringham said the logistics team will have to carry out supply tasks from airports, expedition airports, landing locations, beach areas, ports and various other locations as the entire Pacific region is dispersed.

The twelfth MLR is headquartered in Okinawa, Japan, and the Marines call it “Substitute Force”, which means that unlike most naval expeditions, the MLR is still in the Pacific Theater.

Eltrillhan also said that the area’s Marines will be assisted with resupply by an automatic lower low-profile ship or ALPV (called “Narco-boat”. Martile.com previously reported that Marine Corps training in the area also uses a drainage purification system or PWP, a device that can be found in the environment with 15 gallons of water per hour.

“I think we owe those Marines the ability to train that equipment and then be able to adapt as quickly as possible,” Eltrillham said. “Because I think we can all expect the constraints that are offered in a controversial environment.”

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