Maintaining the Marine Corps' Tank Combat Dominance in an Uncertain Future

Given the realities of the modem battlefield ranging from major contingency operations to hybrid threats. the current fiscal restraints and the rapidly decreasing combat overmatch of the M1A1 Abrams tank compared to other tanks throughout the world, the Marine Corps must determine its future tank acquisition strategy in the near future in order to maintain a platform that will fulfill its roles beyond 2025. This paper presents four relevant courses of action for the Marine Corps to pursue m aquiring its next tank platform. and utilizes the history of tanks in the Marine Corps, the roles tanks have played and will play in future warfare and its current mission to compare and contrast each of these courses of action