The Marine Corps needs to evaluate the contribution of the Marine Light Attack Helicopter (HMLA) Squadron and HMLA Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) detachments towards defeating the most likely forecasted security threat and reorganizing in accordance with the President's strategic guidance for DoD, writ large, and Marine Corps, specifically. The Aviation Combat Element (ACE) of the MEU Marine Corps must be prepared to support the Marine Air Ground Task Force across the full range of military operations. In accordance with President Obama's most recent strategic guidance, the most likely scenarios for employing the MEU are in limited scale peacekeeping, HA/DR, and anti-piracy operations. All of these mission sets are ideally suited for the UH-1Y, and the ACE should be properly equipped to conduct these most-likely mission sets. The UH-1Y has the capability to conduct light and short-range assault support missions, freeing up the MV-22B and CH-53E to perform missions that maximize their unique capabilities. Additionally, with APKWS II the UH-1Y can autonomously deliver laser-guided rockets in an Offensive Air Support mission. Therefore, a recommended change to the ACE is to deploy with four AH-1Zs and five UH-1Ys. To create space for the additional 'skid' aircraft the MEU should deploy with 10 MV-22s and still retain the ability to conduct a company-sized lift. Finally, to deploy more UH-1Ys on the MEUs the HMLA structure will need to change. During this transition period from AH-1Ws to AH-1Zs, the Marine Corps has a unique opportunity to right-size the HMLA to counter the most likely threat and match its capabilities appropriately. A change from 18 AH-1Ws to 12 AH-1Zs and increasing from 12 to 15 UH-1Ys in the HMLA results in detachments of four AH-1Zs and five UH-1Ys and optimizes the HMLA's contribution to the MAGTF.