The sun shone Friday over Kaneohe Bay as the Marine Corps displayed the first two KC-130J refueling aircraft to be permanently stationed in Hawaii as the service restructures its forces amid flaring geopolitical tensions.

The Corps officially activated Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 153 at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

The KC-130Js specialize in refueling other aircraft midflight to allow them to fly longer distances — in this case across the far-flung islands and coastlines of the Pacific and Indian oceans. The Corps ultimately plans to station 15 KC-130Js at the base by the 2026 fiscal year.

For the Marines the arrival of the new aircraft and the activation of the new unit are the culmination of years of work. But the plan, and proposed changes to the base to accommodate the new aircraft, have drawn intense scrutiny from critics who accuse the Marine Corps of pushing ahead regardless of community concerns.

Brig. Gen. George Rowell, assistant commander of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, said that the arrival of the new planes is a “visual manifestation of Force Design 2030 and the evolution of the Marine Corps.” The Corps is undergoing a radical reorganization of its forces to shift gears from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria to return to its roots as a maritime force focused on island and coastal fighting with a 21st-century twist.

That process started on Oahu with the creation of the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, which officially activated in March, and with the removal of all the Marines’ traditional helicopter units, which have long been a source of noise complaints around the island. The focus turned to operation of the Corps’ Hawaii- based tilt-rotor MV-22 Ospreys, an aircraft that can take off vertically like a helicopter but can adjust its rotors to fly like a plane to travel faster and farther than a traditional helicopter.

With the support of the new KC-130Js, the Ospreys can fly continuously across the vast stretches of ocean. The Marines have already done trial runs flying Marines the distance between Hawaii and Australia, the Philippines and Kiribati with the help of refuelers. Marine Aircraft Group 24 spokesperson Maj. Jordan Fox said Squadron 153 will hit the ground running, supporting Marines traveling to the Philippines this spring for Exercise Balikitan 2023.

“Let’s innovate, evolve and, most importantly, be prepared,” Squadron 153’s new commander, Lt. Col. Andrew Myers, told attendees at the activation ceremony. “The men and women in this formation are now part of a new legacy of Pacific warriors.”

The Marines’ new vision for its forces is in many ways tailored for operations in the Western Pacific. The Philippines and other countries in the region have been embroiled in a series of disputes over maritime territory claims and navigation rights in the South China Sea, a busy waterway through which one-third of all international trade travels.

Beijing considers nearly the entire region to be its exclusive sovereign territory. The Philippines sued China, and in 2016 an international court ruled that Beijing’s territorial claims had no legal basis. But the Chinese military has dug in, building bases on disputed islands and reefs over the objections of neighboring countries, and has been stepping up its operations around Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers a rogue province and has vowed to bring under its control by military force if necessary.

But the sweeping changes the Marines seek for its force have put pressure on the Corps to upgrade its facilities, many of which in Hawaii are decades old and built for a different era of military operations.

The Marine Corps has plans to demolish historic Hangar 103, which was attacked by the Japanese navy on Dec. 7, 1941, and still bears damage from the battle, to support the operations of new aircraft. The plan drew criticism from historians and preservation groups. In 2022 the Marine Corps signed a memorandum of agreement with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation that contains several measures to mitigate the impact on historic sites.

“Construction of the new Type II Hangar 103 is expected to take place between fiscal years 2025 and 2027,” said 1st Lt. Mark McDonough. “The design of this new hangar will incorporate historic design elements consistent with those found on hangars built here during World War II.”

Along with the KC-130Js, the Marines will also begin fielding MQ-9 reaper drones this year. The National Environmental Policy Act required the Marine Corps to conduct an environmental assessment on stationing the new aircraft at Kaneohe, which included consulting with the local community and government agencies to evaluate potential impacts on the environment and neighboring communities.

“I was optimistically skeptical that we would meet those timelines,” said Rowell. “But Marines, like we do, we make the impossible possible and the difficult easy.”

However, several residents of neighboring communities have criticized the process and accused Marine officials of pushing forward regardless of their input. The Kailua Neighborhood Board’s Planning, Zoning and Environment Committee raised concerns about impacts to historic sites and asserted that the Marines had provided insufficient data on environmental impacts and potential noise from the new aircraft. In a two-page motion listing concerns about the assessment, the committee called upon the Marine Corps to craft a formal environmental impact statement, arguing that “the proposed project is a major federal action, which will significantly affect the quality of the natural and human environment and therefore requires the preparation of an EIS under NEPA.”

Negative feedback prompted the Marines to extend the comment period for the environmental assessment in September.

But in December the Marine Corps announced that it had submitted a finding of no significant impact, or FONSI, upon deciding the plan does not require a formal EIS. In a news release on the FONSI, the Marine Corps said its own analysis concluded that the new aircraft would not produce an average noise level above 65 decibels, which is “the federally recognized standard of significance,” and that in response to public feedback, it “expanded the analysis in the Draft EA by providing additional data on the noise impact on 22 off-base locations. This analysis confirmed that no location would exceed the ‘significant’ noise threshold of 65 dB DNL.”

Kailua Neighborhood Board President Bill Hicks told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser that Marine officials never told the board about the FONSI or plans to move forward this month.