Faced with a budget that is not intended to increase, and the significant modernization needs facing the United States Marine Corps, its commander, General David Berger, plans to reduce, even remove, the F35B of his inventory. This statement, which has the effect of a small bomb in Washington, is as much to the difficulties encountered by the Corps to recruit and train pilots, as to the very high acquisition and maintenance prices which apply to the F35 , especially in its vertical takeoffs and landings version. To overcome the withdrawal of these aircraft, General Berger intends to rely on the new cooperative combat doctrine developed in the National Defense Strategy, currently being drafted at the Pentagon, and which must define the strategy and the precepts of the engagement of American forces, and consequently Western forces, in the years to come.
The hypothesis raised by General Berger is not surprising, given the restrictions that the Marine Corps is about to commit in the years to come to be able to return to its initial mission, the amphibious assault, and be able to meet the challenge posed by Chinese forces in the Pacific. Handicapped by years of doctrinal and budgetary drifts, the American Marines must indulge in a drastic slimming treatment, for example renouncing their heavy tanks or their heavy artillery, it is really of little use to storm beaches. On the other hand, giving up the F35Bs would indeed be a blow to the hunting component, which had managed, since the entry into service of the Harrier, to have autonomous onboard air support from its own assault ships.
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