{"id":44927,"date":"2026-10-20T20:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/44927\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T20:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:54:14","slug":"marine-corps-creates-first-medium-missile-battalion-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/44927\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine Corps creates first medium missile battalion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Marine Corps redesignated a Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, artillery battalion<\/a> to the service\u2019s first-ever medium missile<\/a> battalion.<\/p>\n

The 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, will be equipped with the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System<\/a>, or NMESIS, as part of the ongoing Marine Corps Force Design 2030 modernization plan, according to a recent release<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Lt. Col. Joseph Mozzi, the battalion\u2019s commanding officer, called making the service NMESIS-capable \u201ca crucial step to facilitate the maritime component commanders to fight for sea control.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201c[The NMESIS] is the Marine Corps\u2019 emerging ground-based anti-ship missile capability, and it will also be a ground-based long-range precision fires platform,\u201d he said in the announcement. <\/p>\n

The NMESIS consists of an unmanned Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV, with two Naval Strike Missiles mounted atop the chassis, according to the service. <\/p>\n

The service added that during a 2021 exercise, Marines successfully tested the weapon system off the coast of Hawaii, where it had an effective range of 130 nautical miles. Later, it introduced the system to the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment<\/a> in 2024 and to the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Marine Corps deployed<\/a> NMESIS along with the Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or MADIS, to Japan\u2019s southwesternmost island \u2014 some 69 miles from Taiwan \u2014 for exercise Keen Sword.<\/p>\n

Although the 1st Battalion is now a medium missile battalion, the 10th Marines aren\u2019t done with artillery.<\/p>\n

Col. William Soucie, commanding officer of 10th Regiment, 2nd Marines Division, explained that the regiment will retain its lightweight Howitzer capabilities, with NMESIS as a complement to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the transition of the weapons platform is interesting, what makes the story compelling is that the Marines and Sailors in that formation are not changing,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are just as good as they have always been, and they will make the platform successful and whatever mission they are assigned successful because they are phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Terrill is a contributor to Military Times. He\u2019s been reporting on military issues, the gun industry, and the outdoors for nearly two decades. Although writing is his passion, he\u2019s been a Marine, police officer, and, perhaps the most dangerous job of his career, a substitute teacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Marine Corps redesignated a Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, artillery battalion to the service\u2019s first-ever medium missile battalion.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[25489,7971,267,265,25488,410,25490,14716,2597,2611],"class_list":["post-44927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-military-defense","tag-1st-battalion-10th-marine-regiment","tag-camp-lejeune","tag-circulated-marine-corps-times","tag-circulated-military-times","tag-medium-missile-battalion","tag-military-times","tag-modernization-plan","tag-nmesis","tag-north-carolina","tag-u-s-marines"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@conflicts\/117475230745940423","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/conflicts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}