Is the U.S. prepared for global conflict? Navy, Marine Corps to undergo massive training exercise to find out

NORFOLK, Va. — They say you can't fight tomorrow's wars with yesterday's rifles.

After the last two decades of battling terrorists in the Middle East, the Navy and Marine Corps are about to embark on a massive maritime warfighting drill to prepare for a different kind of conflict.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has said the military wants to make sure it is relevant and maintains a competitive edge in a future fight.

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That's what the Large Scale Exercise 2023 is all about: 25,000 Navy sailors and Marines on 25 live ships and 50 virtual vessels, fighting across 22 time zones against an unnamed foe comparable to the United States' strength.

The stated goal of the Aug. 9 to 18 drill is "to improve warfighting effectiveness against strategic competition."

U.S. Fleet Forces Command Admiral Daryl Caudle said: "It's important to balance this going forward, making sure we've got the right amount of force and the right amount of emphasis in each of these areas of responsibilities, so we can spin those plates effectively, keep that muscle memory going and know how to fight in all areas."

This comes after 20 years of post-9/11 combat in the Middle East.

Under this scenario, America would be up against a high-end, tactically comparative foe.

The exercise will test whether U.S. Fleet Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Europe would be truly prepared if a global conflict actually broke out.

"And this exercise gives us the opportunity to train new people that weren't here the last 15 to 20 years, to get back to their Naval roots. It's all about Naval warfighting," said Lieutenant General Brian Cavanaugh of Fleet Marine Force Atlantic.

The six Carrier Strike Groups to take part are the USS Bush, Eisenhower, Truman, Carl Vinson, Nimitz and Ronald Reagan.

The three Amphibious Ready groups involved are the USS Kearsarge, Iwo Jima and America.

This will actually be the second Large Scale Exercise. The first one took place in 2021. With 18,000 personnel involved in that event, it was said at the time to be the largest such exercise in a generation.