"It’s not necessarily the embracing of new ideas that’s hard. It’s letting go of the old," Berger said during a June 13 talk with The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "We have to accept risk in certain areas and move very quickly if we’re going to stay in front."Berger’s comments focused on the ongoing implementation of Force Design 2030, a program begun in 2020 with the goal of preparing the Marine Corps for a naval war against major adversaries such as China.
Chinese naval forces greatly outnumber the U.S. Navy in terms of surface combatants.
The United States has nearly 300 warships, though only about a third of that force might be available on any given day, and that third is spread across the entire globe. Only about 60 U.S. warships are deployed in the Indo-Pacific region.
A majority of China’s 350-strong fleet, meanwhile, is stationed within 300 miles of the country. That number rises to more than 600 vessels if the Chinese coast guard and maritime militia forces are counted.
Should a war break out in the Indo—Pacific, that means the United States would be starting at a sizable disadvantage.
According to Berger, naval power will only become more vital to ensuring the national interest in the coming decade, and the U.S. Marines will be central to that effort.
"Submarines, aircraft carriers, amphibious forces. Those three categories are what great naval powers have to have in order to protect their national interests," Berger said. "We need to go back to our naval roots and be naval. Not because it’s our roots, but because that’s how we’re most effective."