The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment — the first unit of its kind — isn’t set to reach initial operational capability until the fall. But a recent exercise, in which the 3rd MLR helped prevent a more traditional force from claiming terrain, demonstrated that it’s already an effective unit, a Marine two-star said. “It’s not capable of everything we set out and designed, but it is a capable operational unit [that] can sense and target and operate under the stand-in force concept,” Maj. Gen. Jay