Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, speaks to reporters during an exit roundtable at Camp Courtney, Okinawa, July 13, 2026. (U.S. Marine Corps)
CAMP COURTNEY, Okinawa — Marine Corps capabilities and tactics are evolving alongside those of the Japanese military as they face increasing threats in the Pacific region, the Marines’ top general in Okinawa said as he prepares to relinquish command.
Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, counts among his achievements a strengthened U.S.-Japan alliance as he prepares to pass the command to his successor, Turner told local media during an exit interview at his headquarters Monday.
Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson is scheduled to take charge of III MEF during a ceremony on Wednesday at Camp Foster.
Turner on Aug. 11 takes command of Marine Corps Forces Pacific and Fleet Marine Force Pacific from Lt. Gen. James Glynn at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii, according to III MEF spokesman Maj. Jordan Fox.
He’ll enter that role with a “really granular” understanding of the Japan-U.S. relationship, Turner said.
“We have seen some things recently with the Japanese deploying capabilities to the Philippines during exercise Balikatan, and so that will be a really large part of my portfolio,” he said. “I think that that’s a very positive development that the Japanese are working outside of Japan in really meaningful ways. And so, I hope to leverage my experience here and then apply it at higher levels.”
During Turner’s 2 ½ years at III MEF, the Marine Corps continued implementing its Force Design concept as China has continued to move assertively in the region. Beijing has increased its naval activity around Japan and on July 6 launched a joint exercise with Russia in the Yellow Sea.
As the security environment in the Pacific region evolves, the Marine Corps and Japanese military “are evolving along with it,” Turner said. He highlighted “the increasing maturity of the bilateral approach to the defense of Japan.”
“Previously we always thought about projecting power from the sea to the land,” Turner said. “What we have worked on over the last five or six years now is the ability to do that still, but also project power from the land into the maritime, into the air, into space and cyberspace.”
Turner underscored new capabilities the allies have fielded in the region, including the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment’s new Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or MADIS, and Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, which arrived in June.
III MEF in June also deployed the Medium-Range intercept Capability, or MRIC, mobile air defense system.
Turner also addressed a Navy plan to homeport up to nine Medium Landing Ships in Hawaii when it begins taking deliveries in 2029. The ships help support expeditionary advanced base operations, a key tenet of Force Design that calls for small, mobile groups to disperse within range of enemy missiles to seize and hold islands and sink enemy vessels.
Turner said he hopes the Marines will be able to use the ships in Okinawa and other “littoral mobility solutions” including U.S. Army ships based in Yokohama.
“We don’t have enough [littoral mobility] now, and increasing that is going to be a really important focus area for both us and the Japanese forces going forward,” he said.
Turner is happy with the progress made under his leadership, he said, “but not satisfied.”
“We still have a ways to go,” he said. “The threats keep evolving and things get harder and we have to evolve along with it.”
AloJapan.com