Another victim of the Corp's adjustment.
Marine Corps Axes Elite Scout Sniper Platoons | Military.com


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Slava Ukraini!

For those who prefer a warmer, more fuzzy and friendly Marine Corps I suppose...Not to mention a lot less useful......Ben

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

I just scanned the article. To me it sounds like the Marines are simply moving the sniper team members to other units, but the mission will still be Kill the bad guys from long range and cause terror in the enemy units. Hope I'm correct but who knows?

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Always Stay Strong!

every time the military does something like this, it is regretted in the next generation (say within 20 years)

Hopefully this not as it appears on its face, for the same old reason resulting in the same old lesson having to be learned again the same old hard way ………

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Qui plantavit curabit

I can remember our Air Force concluding guns were no longer necessary on fighter aircraft since air-to-air missiles were available......Ben

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

I suspect that this might have something to do with the "designated marksman" billet in each fireteam these days. The top brass figuring it was redundant.

I don't and feel this might be a mistake, although reassigning the billet of scout sniper from an infantry regiment to SpecOps would be beneficial and a good fit.

I have always thought that the Marine Corps should've been more like a formal commando unit...travel light, move fast, acomplish the mission, get out.

I have known and worked alongside scout snipers- all good men. One sniper is probably one of the most dangerous things in the combat zone. To quote the old addage of "killing you from another zip code" is true and I would NOT want to be the enemy facing one.

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The Last Standing Knight

Not getting rid of those already trained, but not making any more of them either.
Gathered from this and other articles that the skills taught in the "Scout" portion of the school are unique and not taught in "Sniper" or other Marine schools, though resembling "Recon".

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Slava Ukraini!

To be replaced by a “greeters” platoon.��

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Eccentric old coot

Welcome to war, don't have a good day, have a great day.. thanks for stopping at combat.

Hopefully this is only an organizational change with a redistribution of the practioners, not an elimination of the training and the task.
I love this great big decal I saw on the back window of a pickup truck a few years ago:

Attached Images

sniper decal.jpg (31.1 KB, 104 views)

How and where do they plan on training prospective new snipers?

It sounds like typical military double speak. "We are eliminating A, creating B and calling it C". I'm not sure that the job performed by the Scout/Sniper is going away based on that article.

"Regretted in twenty years"? Vietnam was only 12 years after Korea.
Yes, military doublespeak, renaming something, passing it off as "new, improved!" Infantry Training Regiment is now "School of Infantry".
No doubt many of those who applied for Scout/Sniper training were found to be "extremists", "potential terrorists", etc.

From the Ministry of Truth

This can be explained in four words:
W*O*K*E

Maybe the Spetsnaz will follow suit and will purge their ranks of certifiable psychopaths.

The upper brass in the Marine Corps have been discouraging elite units within the Corps' elite status since mid WWII. When they scrapped their 5 Parachute Regiments and shortly thereafter the Raider Battalions. Force Recon kind of comes and goes. This is more of Same ol', Same ol'!

Ivan

Maybe that will free up some 308 and 300 WM ammo.

I do not care what they say, snipers save lives and will never go away

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

My brother in law was a Marine sniper. I've watched him shoot his Tikkas'...certainly wouldn't want to be on the receiving end.

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Never fly the "A" model

That was a very hard learned lesson. The rumble was, " put one of those defense contractors in the back seat and tell us how important the gun is?"

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Never fly the "A" model

I found the comments in the middle of the article regarding the current hierarchy's attitude towards sniper retention rather disturbing.

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Release the Kraken

But we only want to have nice polite little wars now.

When your military's combat personnel are getting in trouble for using derogatory terms to refer to the people that are trying to kill them you know things are *****.

From the article: "It's not the first time the Corps has dropped the scout snipers."

Yeah, it's not and I'm predicting it won't be the first time they decide to bring it back.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

Just as the world is potentially facing another world war, a useful and efficient Marine Corps unit gets disbanded. Makes no sense to me!

You can't fix stupid.

After scanning the article, it seems the current commandant is one of those OCD folks who like things "organized". At the same time he seems to be dealing with a retention/budget issue. They have trouble retaining folks and at the same time the training is time/money intensive.

I do believe the scout snipers were attached at battalion (company?) level and assigned as needed/requested. However, more the recently crated designated marksmen have been organic to platoons. There's some overlap but one is over qualified for the job and the other doesn't have the equipment & training to do the other. There's a hint that what may (but unlikely) result is that sniper observer teams become a part of infantry platoons. Depending upon mission, that might be a waste of talent.

The Corps did assign actual pilots to units as FAOs to handle air support, don't know if there are other folks who do that now. But those folks aren't where the scout sniper teams are-or could be. Burdening Force Recon with an FAO without critical tactical skills wouldn't be a good idea.

It would appear that some see there's a duplication of effort at a disproportionate cost. Unfortunately, that's not really the case, but it's gonna pretty much depend on who's organizational concept gets finalized.

Oh well hopefully it's more "inclusive" and "equitable."

That's what's most important.

From what I've been reading about this, it looks like this will be more of a reorganization of scouting capabilities. No where does anyone talk about eliminating snipers. I'm sure they are watching what is happening in Ukraine, looking at the PRC and realize that the "scouting" task on the modern battlefield is going to require a lot of different skills beyond just stalking and shooting. Not to mention that they are having the same retention and recruiting difficulties as all the rest of the services and are going to have to do more with less. I'm really not seeing this as a "woke" move or trying to placate any group. I think without being privy to something other than what we see in the mass media, it's a bit hasty to categorize this move as happening because the Marines don't want to shoot anyone.

This article doesn't specifically address the USMC Scout/Sniper issue, but does point out that the mission is changing and is moving back to it's WW 2 core mission of amphibious landings,

Marines: U.S. Marines Invent A New LSM

Here is a short quote, but the entire article was interesting I think,

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Sniper school is not accepting any students after 2023.

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Old paratrooper in NC

Where did you see that?

While the Corps is reorganizing to be a leaner, more agile and mobile force (and thereby contrast themselves with the Army in the fight for budget money) they've got something of a problem. The "littoral" scene of the 1940's early 50's isn't the same today.

You're not gonna pop up unexpected off some land mass, commence the naval gunfire prep and launch the assault boats. Satellite over watch and ship killing missiles make that a problem. Yeah, you can pound the assault target with missiles, but there's a long history of "obliterated" defenses being quite functional when the troops hit the beach. The focus on delivering troops quickly via tilt rotors and other stuff is also problematical when every other grunt can tote a man portable SAM.

Back somewhere in the middle of the Harrier's service life, the new Commandant decided that since every Marine is elite, any pilot could fly one. The lost planes and lives eventually convinced him he was in error. Hopefully, this isn't an another example of the same mind set.

White Feather is probably cussing from his grave.

IIRC, the Corps has also been getting rid of tanks and transferring them to the Army, and I think a couple of other changes have been made to reduce some of the support roles and increase the percentage of direct combat personnel. Not my lane, so no opinion.

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NHI, 10-8.

Most of my friends that served in the Corps are wonder where all this is headed! First tanks, now snipers and then this.........

Never saw a welder that was a good machinist. Don't think whoever thought this up is anything more than a paperpusher.

How the Marine Corps is preparing for era of contested logistics

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.