The United States Marine Corps is fundamentally redesigning its force structure and strategy for a potential future war in the Western Pacific. US military planners are moving away from traditional massed amphibious assaults against determined opposition, as long-range anti-ship missiles and precision firepower have made large invasion fleets vulnerable targets. Rather, the Pentagon has a different strategy for the marines in a possible fight against China, called Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations. This strategy intends to fight inside the enemy’s anti-access and area denial zone rather than trying to assault it from the outside. It relies on small groups of marines occupying small remote islands in strategic locations, and use anti-ship missiles and sensors to deny the surrounding sea to enemy ships. The marines are also reshaping its own structure, introducing the Marine Littoral

Source: The US Marines’ Radical Plan for the Next Pacific War