The United States military offers an expedited path to US citizenship for lawful residents who commit to service. In 2024, while filming the US Marine Corps boot camp in Camp Pendleton, California, chief video correspondent Graham Flanagan followed one recruit taking advantage of this opportunity.
Twenty-four-year-old Ralph Dahilig immigrated to the US from the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although he holds a bachelor's degree in information systems, Dahilig struggled to find a job in the tech industry, which led him to pursue a career in the Marine Corps.
At 5 feet 4 inches tall, Dahilig is not what many might picture as the prototypical US Marine. He had to learn to think outside the box to make it to The Crucible, the 54-hour culminating event of the 13-week boot camp. All recruits must endure it before they receive the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor pendant, symbolizing their official transformation from recruit to US Marine.
China unveiled its newest amphibious assault ship in a launching ceremony in Shanghai on Friday.
The Sichuan's standout feature is a catapult system capable of launching fixed-wing aircraft.
The first-in-class flattop also has a massive flight deck as large as three football fields.
China unveiled the new amphibious assault ship it has been secretly building this past year at a launching ceremony at a shipyard in Shanghai.
The Sichuan, the first Yulan-class landing helicopter assault (LHA) ship, has a massive flight deck as large as three football fields. Once completed, it will be the largest vessel of its kind.
But the ship's large size isn't the only detail that sets it apart.
While other amphibious assault ships have only been able to carry helicopters and vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft, the Sichuan is equipped with a carrier-style catapult system and arresting gear that allows it to launch heavier fixed-wing aircraft, the Chinese navy said. Even with the unveiling, mystery still shrouds what is essentially a light aircraft carrier and China's ambitions for it.
World's largest amphibious assault ship
Construction on the next-generation assault ship began in early 2024, according to the Pentagon's annual congressional report on China's military.
With a displacement of 40,000 tons, satellite images show the Sichuan measures more than 850 feet long and about 170 feet wide, making it considerably larger than its Chinese predecessor, the Type 075, but smaller than the Fujian, the People's Liberation Army's newest and largest aircraft carrier.
The Type 076 is also much larger than Japan's Izumo-class helicopter carriers. While the Sichuan is about as long as the US Navy's America-class LHAs with a similar displacement, it is more than 60 feet wider.
The Chinese warship's larger size and deck space allow it to accommodate both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, with additional storage capacity for more personnel and equipment.
Electromagnetic catapult system
Unlike traditional light aircraft carriers, the Sichuan is equipped with a catapult system and arresting gear for the launch and recovery of fixed-wing aircraft โ an operative capability typically reserved for aircraft carriers.
"This is not something that we've seen before," Matthew Funaiole, a senior fellow with the China Power Project at CSIS, told BI previously. "No other country has an LHA that has a catapult system on it."
The electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) is likely similar in design to the catapult aboard the US Navy's advanced Ford-class supercarriers.
The only warship in operational service that employs EMALS is the US Navy carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. China's third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which has been undergoing shake-down trials at sea, also features three EMALS-style catapults, but the Sichuan's catapult trench, which is over 425 feet long, is significantly longer by comparison.
Earlier Chinese carriers had ski-jump-style ramps for launching aircraft without catapults, leaping past steam-power catapult technology to pursue the more advanced electromagnetic launch system.
Operating for a little over a decade, China's relatively young carrier force could still face a"steep learning curve" in employing modern catapult technology, retired Adm. Raymond Spicer, the CEO and publisher at the US Naval Institute, previously told BI. But the installation of the technology aboard the Type 076 could indicate China's confidence in the design.
Potential future 'drone carrier'
The Chinese navy has yet to confirm what kind of air wing will operate aboard the Sichuan, but it could have a future role as a massive drone carrier, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The vessel's catapult, wider flight deck, and unobstructed runway make it highly capable of large-scale drone operations as China expands its arsenal of UAVs, like the Hongdu GJ-11 stealth combat drone, Guizhou WZ-7 reconnaissance drone, and the CASC CH-4B Rainbow strike UCAV.
'A substantial step forward'
While the exact timeline for the Type 076 still remains unclear, the Pentagon estimated the ship could join China's naval fleet by the second half of the decade.
Operating more than nearly 400 naval platforms, China has the world's largest maritime fighting force but has long been considered a green-water navy, meaning it operates mostly near its shores. Amphibious assault ships and carriers change that equation.
"I think it is as important, if not more important, to emphasize how mind-bogglingly impressive China's ability to build ships is," Funaiole said.
While not much is known about the capabilities or primary mission of China's next-gen amphibious flattops, the CSIS said the Sichuan "represents a substantial step forward" toward the PLAN's blue-water ambitions, projecting power in waters thousands of miles away.
China's marines are preparing for global operations similar to the US Marine Corps.
China is building amphibious flattops whose scale rivals those of the US.
US Marines are also shifting strategies, in their case away from storming beaches.
"Send in the Marines" is an old American quip for when things get rough. It may become a Chinese one too.
Instead of merely guarding Chinese naval bases and supporting an invasion of Taiwan, China's Marine Corps appears to be preparing for amphibious operations around the world โ just as US Marines do. China is building a force of amphibious flattops that can launch Marine helicopters and possibly the fighting vehicles that motor to shore.
"The investment in large amphibious-assault ships indicates that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) envisions a future in which it can deploy expeditionary strike groups similar to those the United States has employed for the past fifty years," wrote Sam Tangredi in a new book published by the China Maritime Studies Institute at the US Naval War College "A globally deployable amphibious/expeditionary group is a far cry from the humble origins of the PLA [People's Liberation Army] amphibious force and a considerable leap from the PLAN [People's Liberation Army Navy] capabilities that existed in the first years of this century."
Established in 1953, the People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps, as it's officially known, was formed to seize Taiwan and other Nationalist-held islands. Like the US Marine Corps, the PLANMC is a branch of the navy. Its missions have been those of traditional naval infantry: guarding naval bases, garrisoning island outposts in the South China Sea, and supporting an amphibious invasion of Taiwan by the Chinese army, which retains its own amphibious assault force.
But the PLANMC has grown to the point where some experts wonder whether it will become an independent service. From two brigades and 12,000 personnel in 2017, the PLANMC has expanded to eight brigades, with a goal of 100,000 personnel; that compares to about 170,000 active-duty US Marines.
Tangredi, who is director of the Naval War College's Institute for Future Warfare Studies, says that there is no direct evidence that China has plans for global amphibious warfare. Yet, "if the Taiwan scenario is the primary purpose in mind, why is the PLA building amphibious warships that are optimized for global operations?" he asks.
Invading Taiwan doesn't require big amphibious assault ships similar to the Wasp-class vessels, 840-foot-long floating airports for Marine helicopters and jump-jets like the AV-8B Harrier II and the F-35B Lightning II and concentrating its assault force into small numbers of large ships comes with risks. Yet China is building 36,000-ton Type 075 amphibious assault ships that can carry up to 30 helicopters as well as 1,200 marines and their heavy equipment, including tanks. The upcoming 50,000-ton Type 076 will be the world's largest amphibious assault vessel.
"For an invasion of Taiwan across a strait of approximately a hundred nautical miles (nm), LHDs are not necessarily the optimal (or the most cost-effective) platforms when numerous smaller warcraft are available (including civilian commercial craft)," Tangredi wrote. "They are, however, optimal for spearheading the transport of marines to conduct operations at distances out to the Horn of Africa, islands in the eastern Pacific, or โ with suitable future logistics support โ the Mediterranean."
Back to their roots
The US Marine Corps is also adapting. It is switching from an emphasis on storming beaches โ the US has not attempted a major beach assault under fire since the Korean war โ to supporting the US Navy with missile-equipped units to hunt Chinese ships from island bases. This is transforming the US Marine Corps into "an archipelagic maneuver force designed to conduct littoral, sea-denial operations," Tangredi said.
The Corps devised a new force layout to operate in an age of drones and anti-ship missiles. In this new structure, Marine littoral units "would not be optimized for amphibious assaults or combat against enemy forces ashore but would use previously unoccupied territory to conduct attacks on warships and aircraft โ essentially, naval combat from the land," wrote Tangredi. Retired senior Marine commanders were aghast.
Thus the USMC has given all its tanks to the US Army, while it creates mobile units that can quickly turn small Pacific islands into missile bases from which to strike Chinese ships. The 3rd Littoral Regiment was stood up in 2022, and two more regiments are planned.
These littoral units would "assist the Navy in asserting sea control in the East and South China Seas," Tangredi wrote. "Marines would operate as part of a littoral combat group, with the Navy having overall command, supplying the warships (and necessary support vessels), and providing most of the group's firepower. Armed with land versions of the Navy's antiship missiles, Marine units would maneuver constantly while ashore by ground vehicles or from island to island using the proposed LAW [light amphibious warship]."
Ironically, the US Marine Corps is returning to its historical roots. Marines have always had an ambiguous role, neither quite army nor navy (poet Rudyard Kipling called them "soldier an' sailor too"). Back to the days of the Roman Empire, marines have been naval infantry tasked with seizing and guarding naval bases, boarding enemy vessels, and acting as shipboard military police to put down mutinies.
This is what the US Marine Corps did for most of its history since its founding in 1775. But in World War II and afterwards, it became more like a scaled-down version of the US Army, conducting massive multi-division amphibious invasions and fighting conventional ground campaigns in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Small, light units flitting from Pacific island to island would be more in line with traditional USMC roles.
As for Chinese marines, their historical purpose was to storm Taiwan, not garrison tiny atolls on behalf of the navy. For China and America, their marines are switching roles.
Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.