“Marines Build Skills to Execute Successful External lifts for Equipment and Supply Transit to Designated Areas”

We supported Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron, Marine Aircraft Group, Marine Aircraft Wing during the training, which ensured pilots and landing support specialists are able to communicate and transport gear from one location to another. The training provided valuable flight practice hours for pilots as well as field training.

“Helicopter support team missions give us the opportunity to attach a payload beneath an aircraft, whether it be a vehicle or other payload within a sling configuration for transport from one location to another, possibly to avoid terrain that would otherwise not be trafficable.

External lifts involve Marines utilising an apex, a metal ring that connects a cargo load to the bottom of an aircraft for air transportation.

“The main two aircraft we complete the helicopter support team mission set with are the CH-53E Super Stallion and MV-22B Osprey. “Those are the Marine Corps’ heavy lift assets for rotary wing aircraft. These are the assets we rehearse with to prepare for real world scenarios.”

To connect the cargo load to the underside of the aircraft, up to four Marines, battle hurricane-force winds from the aircraft rotor wash to connect the apex to an electrified dangling hook.

“Under an MV-22B Osprey is pretty rough stuff. We don’t think we ever experienced anything like it before joining the Marine Corps and started doing our military occupational specialty.

You’re fighting for your feet the entire time you’re out there.”

"You can practice and practice and practice as much as you want, but when it comes to flying the aircraft, whether it's in a train or combat scenario, you have to have the ability to execute.”

"Not to say that all of us are perfect, because we are not by any means perfect at all times. We're always going to have minor errors here and there, but our goal is to limit the impact and frequency of errors every time you go out there."

"It made us realise as brand-new pilots, that even though the qualification will be wingman, that doesn't mean I can stay in my own little safe bubble.

The biggest takeaway from months of training is the importance of being flexible and "adapt as-you-go" while prioritising the task at hand in flight.

"Really, you have to have an ability to ask yourself. 'What are my priorities? What do I need to be doing at this moment with my hands?' You kind of have to figure out based on what's going on around you, whether I should be focusing on an air-to-air gameplan, should I be looking for surface-to-air missiles? Or supporting another force out there," he said.

Training course began with months of classroom basics to identify how each system works and then ground simulator training, including "hours and hours of learning" how pilots should handle emergency situations.

Then the pilots took to the sky for the first time. Flights progressed from learning basic air-to-air maneuvers, to air-to-ground weapons drops, to suppression of enemy air defenses -- or seeking out enemy surface-to-air missiles and "destroying them.”

"You're no longer just learning a basic mission or skill, you're put into a larger scenario with more aircraft and where you're having to do both air-to-air and air-to-ground.”

The pilots tested their weapons bullseye skills. They dropped both inert and live laser-guided munitions," during air-to-ground exercises.

It's about "learning different airspeed limitations, and  simulated air-to-air missile launches.

Toward the end of the course, the pilots use their range for surface-to-air threat training.
Around that same time, training scenarios got harder, similar to what pilots can expect at big exercises.

"To get to that level was pretty incredible, when you look back to the first day in the classroom to the exercise training.

"That flexibility, task prioritisation and execution are hands down the three most critical things that force you to figure out, 'What should you  be doing how should you be doing it, and why?”

“At first we didn't fully understand what the aircraft could bring to the table, but that changed when the trainee pilots integrated with the squadron."

Some of us went straight from pilot training to exercise, so it's quite a quantum leap in terms of understanding mission systems, weapons systems and integration”

"It was meant to push us to a point where we didn't understand what was going on many times in an effort to push you harder than you needed to be pushed.”

"We know we have some stuff planned for the future -- theater security packages -- but I can't really speak to that.”

"We do expect to busy, and we do expect to be on the move quite a bit."

Flying "only appeals to some people. we wanted to fly, and this was a great way to do that.”

"It's long days, it's busy days … it's not an easy job. But it's rewarding. We found ourselfs in an organisation where pilots have the ability to impact the world on a global, strategic level. 

“That’s pretty rewarding.”

“Marine Corps Expeditionary Missions in High Demand for Joint Fighting Scenarios to Ensure Overmatch and Quickly Adapt to New Threats.”
 
Marine expeditionary force is leading contact and blunt-force provider in the world, built with speed, agility and lethality in mind. Recently, amphibious assault ships were quick to respond to an urgent combatant commander requirement with an embarked  Marine Expeditionary Unit MEU F-35B detachment. 

Naval expeditionary forces are the major power in littoral operations. No matter the mission or crisis operation—from support to full combat power projection—expeditionary forces provide the complete force package in any scalable operation. 

Expeditionary operations need to remain prepared to transition into major combat operations. Across the full range of military operations, amphibious ships are a key contributor, ready to conduct prompt and sustained combat operations from the sea and essential to the Marine Corps' statutory mission to "seize and defend advanced naval bases.” 

In any crisis expeditionary forces are prepared to fight in uncertain environments. If required during contingency response operations, amphibious ships and their associated Marine air ground task force MAGTFs will "fight fast" in hostile environments as part of the initial-contact and surge layers that bring capability and capacity into the battlespace. 

On short notice, amphibious ships can reconfigure and be ready to provide the joint force commander with a lethal force capability. All amphibious warships, ranging from amphibious assault LHD/LHA, amphibious transport dock LPD and dock landing LSD ships, can provide a package of wide ranging options. 

From a ready seaport for landing craft; flight deck for either fixed-wing or rotary aircraft or a highly capable command and control platform; expeditionary ships are ready, responsive, survivable, lethal and agile for any crisis. 

Landing Platform/Dock LPDs have proven in the last decade it can meet a wide range of  combatant commander mission requirements. From serving as a flagship for an expeditionary strike group commander to acting as a forward staging base for special operations forces, this platform has proven critical in every phase of the fleet commander’s mission planning. 

With the LPD flight II, an amphibious ready group with an embarked MAGTF will be even more maneuverable, flexible, survivable, and lethal in a future battlespace. 

In the past deployed expeditionary forces required a defensive shield from an Aegis cruiser or destroyer for force protection. Today’s MAGTF and all future amphibious forces will have “fifth generation” offensive and defensive capabilities to operate in any contested battlespace. 

Amphibious ships will realize major upgrades in command and control with the installation of the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar EASR on LHA ships and both flight I and flight II LPDs. This radar takes advantage of the highly scalable design and mature technologies of the AN/SPY-6[V] air and missile defense radar AMDR to be installed on flight-III destroyers, giving amphibious ships a significant air-search upgrade while reducing overall cost. 

In addition, LHDs and LHAs will be outfitted with the Evolved Seasparrow Missile ESSM block II, which incorporates a new dual-mode active and semiactive radar seeker. This will facilitate an expanded flight envelope for achieving advanced manoeuvre for force protection measures. 

To confront the emerging threat in electromagnetic EM warfare the Navy has invested in the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program SEWIP.  This upgrade provides rapid solutions and will enable amphibious warships to fight and win in the EM warfare domain. SEWIP block II provides electronic support and will be outfitted on all current amphibious ships. SEWIP block III adds an electronic attack capability and will be installed on the LHA/D mix and LPD flight II. 

A major enhancement to fleet operations in standoff electronic warfare detection will be established with the Advanced Offboard Electronic Warfare AOEW program. This antiship missile-defense electronic warfare pod will be carried on both the MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters, which when flown from amphibious ships will significantly extend the expeditionary commander’s defensive—and possibly offensive—electronical warfare capability. 

Several years ago, the Navy gave the Marine Corps an enlarged aviation platform to deploy significant numbers of F-35Bs. The first two new LHAs were built without well decks. Even though these warships provide geographic combatant commanders with a supplemental force multiplier in the air warfare domain, all future amphibious ships also will have a well deck able to deploy forces by landing craft.

Today’s expeditionary forces are some of the most capable warships in the world . What makes amphibious ships superior is not only the ability to combine sea-space maneuverability with the flexible strike capability of the embarked MAGTF, but also the ability to protect that embarked force with defensive capabilities and battle-damage resiliency. This is the true measure of being able to “fight to get to the fight.” 


The MAGTF is specifically designed to meet mission-oriented requirements of amphibious missions and expeditionary operations. It addresses the needs for interoperability and mutual support with other elements of the fleet. The MAGTF is formed following building block concept, ie the joint force/fleet commanders operational requirement or mission is assessed and type units are drawn from a Marine division, or aircraft wing. It is placed under the command of one commander to form an air-ground team that will accomplish the mission.

Logistic self-sufficiency is a primary consideration when planning expeditionary operations because Marine air-ground task force MAGTFs are organised to conduct operations under tough conditions. Marine forces and MAGTF commanders provide operational logistics capabilities necessary for conducting expeditionary operations, while tactical logistics are provided by MAGTF commanders and their subordinates. This expeditionary or temporary operations support will be withdrawn after the mission is accomplished.

MAGTF logistics capabilities and accompanying supplies enable it, depending on size, to self-sustain its operations while external resupply channels are organised and established. Marine Corps manoevre practices demand that a MAGTF maintain battlefield flexibility, organisational adaptability, and the ability to react to the changing operational situation.

MAGTF inherent self-sustainment and rapid deployability capabilities allow it to reconstitute itself rapidly and permit rapid withdrawal from a completed operation and immediate re-embarkation for follow-on missions.

Successful deployment, sustainment, employment, and redeployment of a MAGTF are the result of well-coordinated logistics support activities conducted at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.

Organisation of forces, and materiel support responsibilities are the foundation of effective Marine Corps logistics. The organisation of forces, materiel support, and assigned logistics responsibilities are structured with one goal—to support MAGTF operations with sound logistics. They provide logistics troops with the capabilities to respond quickly to changing support requirements.
...
Deployment support is defined as the support provided to a MAGTF that allows the efficient and effective movement of forces from their origins to ports of embarkation and on to ports of debarkation and final destination. Deployment support assists the MAGTF commander in marshaling, staging, embarking, and deploying the command


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“Marines Pursuing Virtual Reality Tech Goggles, Network to Connect Operational Simulations”
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Marine Corps is demonstrating how to use the Tactical Decision Kits [TDK], a digital scenario based tool designed to train and challenge Marines on their tactical decision making abilities.
The Marine Corps is investing in a suite of virtual and constructive training systems, augmented reality goggles and other emerging technologies to give Marines more repetitions and, in some cases, more authentic experiences during training than the service could provide before.
Among the top priorities as the Marines invest in more technologies, though, is ensuring they can be networked together to allow for cross-community training events – fire support teams talking to artillery units, forward air controllers talking to pilots, ground combat units talking to the logistics teams that support them, and so on.
The Marine Corps have planned to conduct an analysis of alternatives AoA] for a Live, Virtual, and Constructive Training Environment [LVC-TE] architecture that would network the simulators together, but due to continuing resolutions and other factors the assessment just began last year.
The AoA looks at several back-end options for netting together the technologies that the Marine Corps and the Office of Naval Research [ONR] have been pursuing – including using the joint force’s network or creating a new one. The process defines the training requirements, based around a variety of scenarios at the company and battalion levels up to a Marine Expeditionary Force level, and then defines training effectiveness, cost and risk for each of the LVC-TE backbone options.
“We’ve kind of realized we just can’t train those pockets of Marines. … You really need to be able to connect those different training audiences to work their procedures and do those supporting and supported relationships and do those standardised procedures and get used to working with people, Marines in other communities – as you send your calls for fires, requests for support, and do battle handoffs with them and work all those different things. So that necessitates an integration between a bunch of different training systems that were originally not designed or procured to ever work with each other.”
Other benefits of LVC training are the ability to simulate large formations instead of trying to amass that many people in one place for a live exercise; the ability to practice high-end or sensitive tactics “behind the curtain” where an adversary can’t spy on them; the ability to do things the military couldn’t do in real life outside of a warzone, such as use a jammer on a civilian area; and the ability to practice certain tactics without risking friendly-fire casualties, such as suppressing an enemy with fires and then stopping as soon as friendly forces reach that location.
“We’ll never get away from live training because the natural realism of being out in the real world will never be completely replaced by simulations, because any simulation is something short of reality. So that will always be, at minimum, our graduation exercise. But we found that through the multiple repetitions you can get in simulations and the fact that you can focus those simulations on particular areas that might be your problem points – we look at simulation as a gateway to live.”
One package of LVC systems the Marines are now working with is the Tactical Decision Kit, which grew out of an ONR effort and was adopted by the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, who wanted to bring more simulation into their training events.
The kit includes a range of virtual and constructive training systems, as well as supporting systems like drones and GPS trackers that enhances the whole continuum of training.
The suite begins with an Interactive Tactical Decision Game, where a small unit leader could be presented with a situation, see the available resources, and start to map out a plan.
The Augmented Reality [AR] Sandtable then allows the small unit leader and up to three teammates to view three-dimensional terrain with AR goggles and begin to think through the positions of machine guns, for example. In the Virtual Battlespace, which is like a first-person shooter video game, each Marine is represented by an avatar, and the Marines can run through scenarios with as many repetitions as they want. Once the units are ready to move into live training, a force-on-force training system puts a GPS tracker on each Marine and a laser system on their weapons to track who was where during the training scenario, who hit their target, who was shot and more.
 
It is clear from the Tactical Decision Kits that simulation can be applied as training increases in unit size, in the complexity of the scenario and in fidelity – from tabletop games to real training in the field. A couple key technology areas the military and the gaming industry are pursuing are set to make that continuum of training even better.
Marine Corps is very interested in augmented reality goggles, especially if they can be reduced to the weight and size of the ballistic goggles the Marines already wear. Whereas some trainer systems exist in a dome room, where users would see a terrain around them and be able to carry out their mission, moving that training outside with AR goggles would provide an even better experience.
The Mobile Fire Support Trainer for fire support teams, for example: “without having to deploy artillery units out to the field or have tank hulls to shoot at, they can put on those goggles and they can send a call for fire. It will insert targets, potentially even moving targets – which we typically don’t get, we’re usually just shooting at old rusty tank hulls that are sitting on the ground. So we can have moving targets. We can integrate those fires with simulated friendly forces that are moving towards an objective – so you can validate that you can turn off your fires at the right time so that you don’t cause friendly casualties – all sorts of interesting things that you can do with this MFTS technology,”
Though the MFST uses goggles that are heavier than the Marines’ ballistic goggles, and therefore not quite the technology the service would want to invest in for all Marines’ training, Harder said the fire support teams tend to operate from a stationary position and therefore the technology is good enough to invest in for this one community.
“It’s a nice first step towards providing augmented reality training capability out there, and it’s one of the unique projects that the Marine Corps has that, no other services have,” Though the programme is still in the engineering and manufacturing development phase and trying to reduce the weight a bit more, a fielding plan is already in place to bring MFST to schoolhouses first and then to operational units.
Another tech development area the Marines are keeping a close eye on is what the gaming industry is doing to enhance cognitive behaviour representation – or ensuring that all the people and items in the background of the scenario make realistic decisions. As commanders have more tools in the field for situational awareness, that has to be reflected in simulators now too, which means the simulator must be more detailed to reflect this new way commanders can see the battlefield around them.
“Back just 10 or 20 years ago when we were just moving large formations across the battlefield, one icon could maybe represent 100 Marines. But now we’ve got unmanned platforms with video capability on them that could be anywhere on the battlefield, so at any moment the commander wants to be able to say, show me a live video feed of that spot right there; so now you have to be able to simulate not just, here’s an icon representing 100 Troops, you have to be able to zoom in and see what are those people doing and are they acting realistically, and you’re going to want to be making decisions in real-time based on what you see.”
“So that’s a much higher level of Troop behavior representation that we need to be able to provide. Both the sort of functional capability of do those individual entities make the right decisions within their communities or their units, but also just the distributed processing capability to run all those many decision-making engines without having the whole computer system come crashing down.”
Marine Corps Operating Concept highlights the importance of training, and LVC training in particular, that doesn’t always translate to sufficient funding. But several communities in the Marine Corps are taking it upon themselves to create integrated LVC training experiences, and their hunger for the capability and success in proving its benefits helps argue for more service support for the technologies and their integration.
At Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center 29 Palms in California, Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-One [MAWTS-1], the Marine Air Ground Task Force [MAGTF] Training Command and I Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) decided to pool resources and create a temporary integrated training event. “If it wasn’t important, they wouldn’t be doing it. The challenge is, though, that there is not an institutional Marine Corps program to support those types of events. So that’s the shortfall Marines are trying to close with establishing that LVC-TE program, because we want to provide a funded, well-designed standing capability that a unit can easily tap into whenever they want to conduct that type of training.”
 
Videos show how augmented-reality tablets can allow Marines to “see through weapons systems blocks and overlay designs and other information onto a real space as technicians move around.
It’s part of a larger plan to make Marine Corps training paperless, tablets can also contain training videos and other instructions for Marines. In coming years, concept may expand even further.
“The vision for this whole thing is you can tell it who you are and it hands you an iPad with your work downloaded for the day.” At the end of the day, Marines can return their tablets to the central location, where they will be reset with the next day’s work and information.
“Our goal is to be drawing with this tablet technology soon. “It will be the first drawingless system, and we think the operational gains associated with that are tremendous. Today the when we look at how we go do this, how do we do this efficiently, what are the benefits associated with that.”
Marine Leaders have shined a spotlight on live, virtual and constructive [LVC] training. The Marine Corps should use simulators to the greatest extent possible. But they need to cover all the right warfighting areas. And the service needs to ensure Marines get enough hours in the simulator. And the simulators need to align with training and readiness goals.
With a new focus on LVC training, the Marine Corps Training and Education Command [TECOM] is in the midst of several efforts to ensure its LVC training capabilities are supporting the right skills and in the right quantities.
Operational planning teams have been ordered to take a comprehensive look at existing capabilities for LVC training, how they’re using the force today and where gaps exist between training needs and current capabilities.
The deep dive looks at all the simulators in use, what warfighting functions in the Marine Air-Ground Task Force [MAGTF] they support – maneoeuvre, fires, intelligence, logistics and more – and at what levels, from individual to battalion and staff levels. The subsequent chart this effort created pays particular attention to the areas highlighted by Marine Corps Leaders.
 
We have discussed how marines want to see greater incorporation of simulation into training and readiness standards, … greater use of immersive simulation such as the Infantry Immersion Trainers and simulators that would provide realistic scenarios for the individual Marines.”
 
We want emphasis on small unit leader decision-making in every way possible that we could incorporate simulation to where that’s the first scenario the Marines are exposed to before they see something live, and once they weigh in then TECOM can assess where the capability gaps are, not just LVC training incorporated into all warfighting functions, but that the training needs to support the Marines’ standards for full combat readiness.
“For a long while a lot of the simulators out there provided a great capability but weren’t necessarily linked to training and readiness standards, and that’s where a lot of this effort is currently underway to look at that.”
To that end, the Marines are launching a massive effort to assess several warfighting areas to ensure the simulators available match the requirements laid out in the training and readiness [T&R] manuals.
“The idea is that we needed to take a comprehensive look at all the T&R manuals – literally every single event in the T&R manuals – against the capabilities of all the simulators that are currently fielded.”
“So we have to match current requirements for the Marines to train against what the simulators currently can do and say, using the subject matter experts, yes or no for each one of those events. And then, if yes, how much time is required in that simulator to train that to standard. “And then we will roll that up at the end of the week – so we are able to give to the commander a report out of that training and readiness manual.”
“This is how much simulator time we’re going to require as the numerator, the denominator being how much simulator time we have available. So then we will be able to assess where are we, how good and how much more of that are we going to need.”
 
The first SAWG will tackle tanks. Fires will come next and combine several T&R manuals, including artillery, tactical air control party and air naval gun fire liaison companies [ANGLICO].
“Those will all be combined into one because many of those events in those units are the same. We don’t want them to independently assess and make different assessments of the sims. We want them all to come to consensus so that there’s a Marine standard on employing that sim.”
Notably missing from the lineup is aviation. The aviation community is far more advanced in its simulated training capability than other communities in the MAGTF, so this effort will hopefully help the ground, logistics and other sections of the Marine Corps catch up.
At the end of the trial period, the SAWGs will have made recommendations on each warfighting area regarding whether simulation training is adequate, more is needed or a better simulator is needed. The budget controlers in TECOM will ultimately have to decide how to allocate resources to fill in any gaps. In some cases, there may be enough simulators but the Marines will need more contractor support to run the simulators for more hours a day, he said. In other cases, the Marine Corps may need to invest in more simulators.
In TECOM’s capabilities division, an acquisition effort is underway to take the existing simulators – which will be verified as meeting training and readiness requirements – and tie them together to create a more holistic MAGTF training experience. The division is “federating existing simulators … so that we can have a distributed Live Virtual and Constructive Training Environment.”
The simulators themselves already exist, and standards divisions are ensuring the simulators teach the right lessons. But we wants to build an architecture to tie them all together.
So you’re able to do better collective training – for example, if you have a pilot in his aircraft simulator and then you have a Marine in the virtual battlespace too doing close air support or something, if you’re able to interconnect the two that makes collective training so much better.
“That just adds so many more realistic variables. … If you’re training in a system, that’s not as bad – the aircraft is going to show up on time. But when you’re training with a pilot in another station, it adds some more variables. You’ve got to get your communications up, he’s got to be on time.”
Another key benefit of collective training is that important relationships are formed between Marines training in different locations. Individual training in a simulator only lets a Marine interact with the computer and the officer or contractor running the training event. Collective training puts Marines in contact with other Marines who they might find themselves in a combat zone with down the road.
The next step in creating the LVC Training Environment is the analysis of alternatives, which will generate various packages for leadership to choose from, but not all the simulators will be connected but that those that should be interconnected will be.
“While we’re making systems interoperable and federating systems, another major goal is to make sure we continue to integrate the MAGTF.
There is real uncertainty whether such things as robotic tanks and high-speed scout helicopters are possible on the requried timeline. But if there's one area where a high-speed approach can work, it's training simulations, where Marines can piggyback on the rapid development in commercial gaming.
To train troops for future wars, we want to build the ultimate video game. To get that game ASAP, the Marines are blowing up the usual bureaucracy and borrowing high-speed development techniques from private sector companies.
The service has already held industry days on different aspects of the technology, and combat soldiers have already tried out some industry offerings, Some systems will be ready to when it enters service. A full augmented reality training system will soon be ready complete with interior maps of buildings around the world and simulated Troops
 
It’s not the typical process Instead, she said, her Cross Functional Team — so-called because it pulls together experts from across the services — is working closely with industry in a tight cycle: “let me see the products you have, let’s give you feedback, let’s continue to develop this thing, over and over.”
The top priority is an augmented reality system to train soldiers on foot, the Soldier-Squad Immersive Environment. Augmented Reality goggles would superimpose virtual obstacles and enemies over the Troops field of view so troops can simulate any scenario at their own home base. This is something the Marines never had before, and it could revolutionise infantry training.
Collective trainers are used to train a vehicle crew to operate as a team where each simulator replicates a single vehicle. But current simulators are mostly products of sever decades ago when each program — Humvees, tanks, helicopters, etc. — contracted for its own custom training systems. The result is a mess often outdated and incompatible systems. The Marines want a new family of vehicle simulators it can easily network together so tank crews, pilots, and more can all practice combined arms tactics in the same digital exercise.
The game engine runs all the specific simulations. Commercial gaming has made dramatic advances from the two-dimensional, cartoon Pac-Man 40 years ago to cinematic experiences like Call of Duty today, and Marines are operating on much of which is still in the Pac-Man era — so it wants to take advantage of what that industry has to offer.
All these playing pieces exist on top of the digital game board. Called One World Terrain, it is a global database of real-world terrain for use in training scenarios, replacing dozens of different and often incompatible databases used by current simulators. One World Terrain has been described as “a military-grade Google Earth,” but it’s actually more ambitious that that, because Marines are not satisfied with top-down satellite views.
Instead, to train for urban combat, the services want to include underground tunnels and the interiors of buildings. Some floor plans will be best-guess approximations generated based on typical building layouts — but there is also work going on to automatically upload the schematics for specific buildings.
The goal is to train pilots and other crew members on how to respond to threats by providing “real-time orientation and positioning status to support simulated engagements during live exercises at the Combat Training Centers and will essentially turn this form of combat training into a video game.
 
“The device will interface through a network, providing its location and orientation on the training battlefield. When the Marine engages the aircraft with it, it will transmit that information to the system, which will also be tracking the aircraft flying in the air. The device is expected to improve how pilots and associated personnel respond and react to threats, and will provide real-time performance metrics points.
Once the prototype device is delivered, Marines will review it and could choose to develop additional units and deploy them across the military branch. “This is a vital project and we are confident that our solution will boost training and improve the ability to combat enemy threats, and we are excited to be able to pioneer next-generation capabilities during this effort.”
 

Marines Reorganise Priorities for Future Combat: In High-Tech Conflicts Troops Must Spread Out to Avoid Incoming Firepower
 
 
“Everything that Marine wears -- from their boots to their socks to their utilities to their helmet -- is all going to be changed," the Commandant said. "We’ve got money now to do that, and so we’ve got to make it happen now. We’ve got to make it happen now, because I’m not going to make the assumption that that money’s going to be there.”
 
To conduct “distributed operations,” the Commandant said, the Marines are adding technical experts — in drones, intelligence, supply, and other specialties — to small units so they can operate more independently of higher headquarters. The tradeoff comes in old-fashioned firepower: Infantry squads will shrink from 13 Marines to 12, and infantry battalions will have fewer heavy-duty support weapons such as 81 mm mortars and TOW anti-tank missile launchers.
 
Not all the changes have been finalised, but pending a formal bulletin to the force, the Commandant outlined the following moves to a Marine Corps Association awards banquet:
 
Each rifle squad will get its own quadcopter mini-drone to scout ahead and a drone operator to run it. But the squad will shrink from 13 Marines (three fire teams of four plus a squad leader) to 12 --three fire teams of three plus a command team of squad leader, assistant squad leader, and “squad systems operator“.. Every rifleman will carry the new M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR), complete with flash suppressor, instead of the lighter and less powerful M4 or M16.
 
Each rifle platoon will also get a specialist drone operator. They and the platoon leadership will also get the M27.
 
Each company headquarters will get an intelligence cell — making permanent an improvisation from Afghanistan and Iraq — as well as drone operators for reconnaissance, counter-drone specialists to defeat enemy reconnaissance, and logisticians to keep the company supplied.
 
Each battalion will gain a combat engineer platoon and reshuffle its weapons company. The number of anti-tank teams with shoulder-fired Javelin missiles will increase from eight to 12, and the Javelin’s range will increase with an upgraded control unit. But the number of the heavier (and older) TOW missile launchers will drop by half, from eight to four, and the number of 81 mm mortars by a quarter, from eight to six. The weapons company will also get Polaris MRZR offroad vehicles to help haul its heavy gear. Their personnel, however, will stick with the old M4 carbine.
 
“I felt like we could afford to get a little bit lighter,” the Commandant said, “because of what I anticipate to be the increased range and lethality of weapons and because of other capabilities I think the squad platoon and company’s going to have like Switchblade.” Switchblade is a drone that can both scout for targets and dive on them, detonating itself (or you can think of it as a missile that can do reconnaissance).
 
Launching a Switchblade drone/missile
 
“There’s Risk”
 
Even with the current generous budgets, the Commandant said tradeoffs are inevitable. “There’s risk ,” he acknowledged to reporters. “(But) remember we just added a company intel cell and a log cell….a UAV/counter-UAV team. I just added four Javelin teams (to the weapons company). I’ve got to pay for that.”
 
Some of these changes are already underway, the Commandant said, like issuing the M27. “We’ll start fielding the rifle as soon as the manufacturer can get it in their hands, and then other things are going to take longer,” he said. “Some things will be months. Some things will be longer. It’s not like we’re going to wake up tomorrow and this will all be in place.”
 
Marine firing M4 carbine
 
The M27 is basically a heavier M16, with greater firepower, longer range, and more robust mechanisms. (Specifically, it replaces the M16 family’s finicky gas impingement system with a conventional piston-based recoil). It was originally bought as the rifle squad’s high-firepower weapon, replacing the M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon, essentially a light machinegun). But now the Commandantwill issue it to every Marine in the infantry, reconnaissance, and combat engineers. The M4 carbines freed up this way will go to non-infantry troops. Eventually, Neller said of the M4, “it’s going to be the weapon that we’re going to give to everybody else because it’s a newer weapon and it’s lighter.”
 
The squad’s new drone operator will get the heavy-duty M27. “Right now, that Marine is still an infantryman,” the Commandant said. “They’re going to have to fight…They’re part of the squad,” with the same Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) as the other infantrymen.
 
In fact, the Commandantis issuing everyone in the rifle platoon the same weapon so enemy snipers can’t easily pick out, say, the drone specialist or the platoon leader. “I want everybody in the platoon to look the same. I don’t want any bad guy to go, hey this person or that person’s carrying this weapon, so shoot them first,” he said. “When I would do a battlefield circulation in Iraq (i.e. visiting frontline units), I always carried a carbine — and all my guys hoped to God I didn’t have to use it — but it was camouflage.”
 
There’s another tradeoff here: While the M4 carbine that became standard in Iraq and Afghanistan is significantly lighter than the M16 rifle, the M27 IAR is significantly heavier, even before you add the now-standard flash suppressor. Add mini-drones, night vision devices, laser designators, and other high-tech kit,
 
Marines train with the Javelin anti-tank missile
and the weight can wear infantry down on long marches.
So when the Commandanttalked to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, which experimented with a lot of the new gear now being issued Corps-wide, “their biggest concern was the same concern I had,” he said: “We’ve got too much stuff and it weighs too much. You can’t just keep loading stuff on.”
 
The Marines are reviewing every item that foot troops carry Neller said: “We’re going to get down to ounces.” He’s particularly optimistic about new forms of ammunition that replace metal cartridges with lightweight materials that are consumed in the act of firing, although those aren’t being fielded yet.
 
The changes announced last night are just the start. The Marines have a lot of technology in their long-term plans:
 
new long-range precision-guided missiles for the artillery, including ones capable of killing ships at sea, a project the Marines are working on with the Army;
 
miniaturised missile defenses for armored vehicles, called Active Protection Systems, to shoot down incoming anti-tank weapons, another joint Army-Marine effort
 
a ship-launched reconnaissance drone called MUX;
 
a new Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) to bring F-35-like sensor and networking capabilities to the ground force;
 
new anti-aircraft defenses, including a quick-start Other Transaction Authority (OTA) initiative to integrate an off-the-shelf missile with existing Marine radars and command-and-control;
 
more tank companies and a new HIMARS rocket artillery battalion.
 
There’ll be plenty of small-scale improvements as well, the Commandant promised the audience at the dinner, as long as the current funding lasts — which may not be long, given the looming return of Budget Control Act caps in 2020.
 
“Everything that Marine wears — from their boots to their socks to their utilities to their helmet — is all going to be changed,” the Commandant said. “We’ve got money now to do that, and so we’ve got to make it happen now. We’ve got to make it happen now, because I’m not going to make the assumption that that money’s going to be there.”
 
 
The Marine Corps is making sweeping changes to the structure and equipment of its ground-combat forces aimed at improving lethality and agility on the battlefield.
 
Officially announced last week, the modifications are the result of nearly two years of study and experimentation known as Marine Corps Force 2025 and Sea Dragon 2025. the Commandantspoke about them earlier this month at a meeting for the service’s top officers and enlisted ground-combat leaders
 
Changes will be felt at almost every level of Marine Corps life.
 
The number of Marines in a rifle squad will be decreased from 13 to 12. The service will also add more automatic weapons, drones and all-terrain vehicles, while improving night optics, grenade launchers and shoulder-fired rockets.
 
The Marines are fast-tracking some of the changes, but others will be phased in over the next three to five years.
“The surest way to prevent war is to be prepared to dominate one,” the Commandant saidin a Marine Corps statement. “And that is what we are going to do.”
 
The Marines sent an experimental unit to Okinawa in May 2017 to test various unit sizes, concepts and technologies as the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s ground-combat element.
 
A ‘better’ Marine Corps
 
Some of the changes are being made to the fundamental makeup of the Marines’ smallest ground units.
 
A rifle squad — whose mission is to “locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, or repel the enemy’s assault by fire and close combat,” a Marine Corps instruction said — has typically consisted of 13 Marines.
 
Each squad includes three fire teams of four Marines each, built around a single automatic weapon and led by a sergeant serving as squad leader. Fire teams include a corporal fire-team leader or grenadier, two lance corporals — one with an automatic rifle and another assisting — and a private or private first class serving as rifleman.
 
Under the Commandant changes, fire teams will now feature three Marines, Capt. Ryan Alvis wrote in a statement. All will be armed with an M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle with suppressors and improved optics.
 
Though fire teams are losing a Marine, they are gaining two automatic weapons, giving each squad a total of 12.
 
Two new positions — assistant squad leader and squad systems operator — are also being created for each squad. Rifle squads will keep an additional slot open for one rifleman per fire team should they need to add depth, but the positions will remain unmanned.
 
Late last month, the Marines awarded a contract for up to 15,000 M27s that will partially replace M4 carbine semiautomatic rifles, a Marine Corps statement said. The rifles cost about $1,300 each.
 
The new makeup of the squad will see a squad leader — who will remain a sergeant with five to seven years of experience and formal squad leader training — backed up by a corporal as an assistant, the statement said. The new squad-systems operator will be a lance corporal formally trained in a variety of technologies.
 
Fire teams will consist of corporals in the leadership role, backed by lance corporal grenadiers and automatic riflemen.
The changes will be implemented across all Marine infantry battalions over the next three to five years, the statement said. The Commandant saidthis will ensure Marine Corps infantry formations remain the most “lethal, agile, and adaptable in the world.”
 
“We are going to change,” the Commandantsaid in the statement. “Not that we aren’t good; we are. But we must continually strive to get better.”
 
21st century battlefield
 
The Marines will also immediately begin distributing quadcopter drones to every squad. Platoons will gain a drone operator, and rifle companies will get a counter-drone section of five Marines.
 
Marine squads will also receive improved binocular night-vision devices and improved optics that include thermal capability and improved M320 grenade launchers.
 
They will gain additional firepower and rocket range as the Multi-Role Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapon System, known as MAAWS or the “Carl Gustav,” replaces the Mk-153 Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon, or SMAW.
 
Squads will also get handheld devices that provide a digital link to close-air support and adjacent units, and an M38 Squad Designated Marksmanship Rifle with a suppressor and variable 2.5-8 power optic, the statement said.
 
The M38 is not a sniper rifle, but provides improved identification and engagement of targets up to 600 meters away. Marines carrying it will be required to complete additional training on range estimation, scope theory and observation.
 
Beyond the squad level, Marine scout snipers are to receive the Mk13 Mod 7 Long Range Sniper Rifle, the statement said. That rifle is used by members of U.S. Special Operations Command.
 
Weapons companies will get four additional extended-range Javelin antiarmor missile systems, bringing their total to 12, to offset the loss of four wire-guided TOW missile systems, the statement said. Eventually, TOWs will be eliminated from Marine Corps battalions altogether.
The Marines also announced the elimination of two 81-mm mortar systems, bringing the total down to six; however, they will pack a bigger punch with extended ranges and ammunition improvements.
 
Marines should also see more Polaris MRZRs, an all-terrain vehicle that resembles a dune buggy.
 
Each rifle company will gain an operations/intelligence section, a logistics cell and small arms repair, the statement said. Marine battalions will add an information management officer and an information environment operations officer and chief to integrate “information warfare capabilities.”
 
Each infantry battalion will gain a forward air controller, which means each rifle company will have one assigned.
Plans also call for combat engineer squads to increase to 13 Marines and engineer platoons to be attached to each infantry battalion.
 
The Marines’ 2nd Tank Battalion will get an additional company while the service upgrades its M1A1 active protection systems and target acquisition and sensor suites, the statement said.
 
The service also plans to bring back 5th Battalion, 10th Marines as a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, battalion in fiscal year 2023.
The Marines also plan to field upgraded light armored vehicles with anti-tank capabilities
 
 
This year, two Army IBCTs and a not-yet-disclosed Marine unit will be testing four variants of a load-bearing robot vehicle within the dismounted formation for the next year.
 
During a technology demonstration focusing on Secretary of Defense push to make the close combat forces more lethal, officials with the Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transport showcased the four submissions. The vehicle is designed to take the burden off the soldier.
 
These two BCTs will be the first to put robotic vehicles in their formations
 
The autonomous ground vehicle is meant to be capable of carrying up to 1,000 pounds of gear over 60 miles in 72 hours.
 
Officials disclosed this week that a Marine unit at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, will test the vehicles for the same period.
 
Each unit will get each of the variants to test.
Assessment began with evaluation of 10 systems at Fort Benning, which were narrowed down to four: the MRZR X, based off the Polaris MRZR, currently in service with the Marines; the General Dynamics 4x4 Multi-Utility Tactical Transport or MUTT; the Howe and Howe RS2-H and the HDT Global Hunter Wolf or Wheeled Offload Logistics Follower.
 
The MRZR X is a four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle; the MUTT is an eight-wheeled with a flatbed type of configuration. The Hunter WOLF is a six-wheeled vehicle that uses a morphed tire/track for traction; the RST2-H1 is the only tracked vehicle submission.
 
The testing moving forward is aimed at putting enough gear
nine-soldier squad ― nine rucks, two fuel jugs, two water jugs and three days’ worth of Meals Ready to Eat ― and carry batteries and charge them while on mission.
 
The three basic requirements for the vehicles are to carry 1,000 pounds, travel 60 miles in 72 hours and charge up at a 3-kilowatt rate while stationary and 1-kilowatt rate while moving, said Greg Colvin, technology demonstration engineer for the SMET program.
 
All four can be operated with a one-handed remote control, . Two can be driven through teleoperations or using non-line of sight maneuvering with onboard sensors and cameras.
 
The MRZR X is an “optionally manned” vehicle that can be driven either by a person in the vehicle or remotely controlled.
 
The vehicles will first stop at the Testing Command before being sent to the units in November for a year’s worth of testing.
 
Researchers will gather data and conduct interviews, providing quarterly reports on the use of the vehicles in the formations.
 
Following the year testing there will be an evaluation and potentially a down select to one vehicle, or a decision on whether one type of vehicle can fit all the squad load needs or if more than one type might be required.
 
 
Marines Zero In On Requirements for Future MUX Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
 
 
The Bell V-247 tiltrotor is an unmanned aerial system (UAS) that will combine the vertical lift capability of a helicopter with the speed and range of a conventional fixed-wing aircraft, and would provide long-endurance persistent expeditionary and surveillance and fires capabilities.
 
The Marine Corps has refined its vision for a large sea-based unmanned aerial system (UAS) after honing in on capability gaps the Marines most urgently need to fill.
 
Since creating a program of record for the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) UAS Expeditionary (MUX) in the summer of 2016, the service has learned much about what it really needs, what industry can provide, and how to keep the program’s cost from becoming unmanageable.
 
MUX is meant to be a Group 5 UAS capability that launches from an amphibious ship or other ship and can land either on a flight deck or in an expeditionary airfield. This large system would supplement the Marines’ Group 3 RQ-21 Blackjack and the ongoing fielding of small quadcopters at the lowest levels of the infantry – dubbed “quads for squads.”
 
Though the MUX was originally given a lofty set requirements to perform seven distinct – and not necessarily complementary – mission sets, a March 8 request for information prioritized those missions. Tier 1 missions for the MUX are now early warning; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); electronic warfare; and communications relay. Offensive air support is now a Tier 2 mission, and aerial escort and cargo are listed as important but potentially being re-allocated to other systems in the MAGTF.
 
The ongoing Future Vertical Lift program is almost certain to cover the Marines’ aerial escort and cargo needs, according to wargames that have been recently conducted. Whatever cargo requirement is not met by Future Vertical Lift could be accomplished with the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter delivering goods in bulk or by a smaller UAS that the Marine Corps’ Installations and Logistics community is now working to develop, which would deliver smaller loads of supplies to distributed Marine forces.
 
“So what do we need from MUX? It is persistence and endurance and time on station, when put into the context of the MAGTF air combat element of the future: the CH-53K and the Future Vertical Lift to do major lifting, and the MV-22 Osprey and F-35B Joint Strike Fighter that would need a UAS that can keep up with their extended-range operations.
 
The decision to emphasize the four missions – and early warning in particular – was also in part due to how the threat set around the world has evolved and the “National Defense Strategy [that] dictates what missions and roles of the Marine Corps we should focus on.
 
It was also informed by industry feedback the Marine Corps solicited early on that said “you’re asking for too much, it’s going to cost too much,” The [initial capabilities document] we wrote was really all-encompassing.”

“We started really working with the contractors off the ICD and what we were kind of getting from them was, boy, this is a pretty big broad capability – this is going to be big and this is going to be expensive. They were almost looking to develop a V-22 unmanned sized and cost aircraft. So we looked at that and said, okay, that’s why we’ve got to work with industry more as we develop requirements.”
 
Ultimately, the new focus on persistence and endurance during these sensor-based missions will affect the shape of the vehicle that can best meet the MUX requirements as they stand today.
 
“When you put cargo lower, what that does is, you don’t have to have that dead space in the fuselage. That space can be used for fuel, for payload, for other sensors.“Instead of focusing on 3,000 or 4,000 pounds internally on cargo, it’s good to have that on the wings as electronic attack pod, or look at weapons – weapons take up a lot of your weight, a lot of your drag, so you want to have that capability. So it absolutely will influence the design.
 
Instead of the design having to have so much extra power to come in and deliver cargo … that’s a different model, different rotor. … What you get in efficiencies on slow-speed handling and takeoff, you’re giving up something in endurance. So there’s always a tradeoff, and if you prioritize this thing less on cargo and more on getting on the wing and have endurance at 300 or 700 miles” then industry can optimize the vehicle design for missions that will most benefit the MAGTF.
 
Much is yet to be decided about how the MUX will ultimately operate at sea, but a vision of MUX: the air vehicle fits into an H-60 hanger for storage and maintenance, and potentially even folds up to an H-1-sized vehicle so that two can be stored in the H-60 hangar. It operates off the San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks (LPD-17) – or even potentially a frigate, a destroyer or the Future Surface Combatant – and as many as three or four might deploy on the big-deck amphibious assault ships to provide greater support for forces ashore and for the Joint Force.
 
It provides persistent early warning and ISR coverage autonomously, and it could potentially have air vehicle command passed from the control station onboard a ship to V-22 or F-35B pilots nearby to more closely check out a target or to conduct a kinetic or non-kinetic attack.
 
Navy’s MQ-8 Fire Scout was scheduled to sundown around the time MUX would reach full fielding, so if the MUX program were executed correctly the Navy could adapt the system for its needs as well.
 
The RFI outlines a vehicle that would autonomously take off from and land on either an amphibious ship or an Expeditionary Sea Base such as the USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3), or from an unsurveyed austere 150-foot-by-150-foot landing zone; cruise at speeds of 200 to 300 knots with a full payload; maintain a minimum time on station of eight to 12 hours at 350 nautical miles from the ship; and fly 350 to 700 nautical miles from the ship unrefueled with a payload to conduct a mission.
 
Ultimately, MUX would be “the eyes and ears for most of the surface fleet. Absent AWACS (the Air Force’s E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System), absent E-2 (the Navy’s E-2C/D Hawkeye), it’s the best thing you have out there.”
 
The MQ-9 Reaper, costs about $15.8 million apiece for the airframe, which serves as a good goal for the MUX cost.
 
“We know [MUX] will probably be a little bit more than that because the capabilities are apples and oranges, and the vertical is another component” that adds cost, in addition to being sea-based versus land-based. But if the MUX cost grew too much beyond the Reaper cost, it could become unaffordable for the Marine Corps.
 
To further ensure the Marine Corps is moving down an affordable and technologically feasible path, the service will host an industry day. , it announced last week. After hearing from contractors – both those with prototypes already in development and those who just have an individual system or technology to contribute.
 
Marine Corps would likely go through multiple draft requests for proposals before releasing a final RFP to solicit industry bids. The analysis of alternatives should be completed in the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2019, with a downselect to two or potentially more contractors that the Marines will work with to develop the technology.
 
Ultimately, the Marines are hoping the program will reach initial operational capability in 2025 or 2026, and full operational capability by 2034. There may be some lag time between the IOC date and the system’s ability to operate off a ship due to shipboard integration test and certification requirements, but the RFI notes that the sea-based capability must be achieved by 2028. The RFI also notes the Marines are willing to use rapid acquisition authorities to achieve this timeline.
 
Three systems are in the prototype design phase and should begin flight testing soon – the Lockheed Martin Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES) ducted fan UAS that will begin flight testing later this year, the Bell V-247 Vigilant unmanned tiltrotor scheduled for flights in the coming years, and the Northrop Grumman TERN tail-sitter UAV that will wrap up a prototype phase with DARPA in FY 2019 and then move into shipboard testing with the Navy’s Self-Defense Test Ship.
 
Additionally, some manufacturers have technologies for individual components of the UAS that have caught the Marine Corps’ interest. One contractor has a new two-speed transmission rotor design that would “revolutionise” tiltrotor technology by slowing down the hub and therefore achieving three times the range.
 
Overall, with the MUX program’s lofty goals and challenging timeline for something that’s so new – it’s like the V-22 not in terms of size or cost but rather the potential to overhaul how the military can conduct its missions so the pressure is on industry to step up.
 
“We are forcing them to take what they have and accelerate to get to this and make decisions over the next year, hopefully by the second quarter of FY 1’9. Downselecting to two, and then having a fair competition.”
 
 
 

“Marines Transitioning Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Weapons Systems”
 
Marines have ditched their plan to field a very large drone on amphibious ships, instead breaking the MUX program into a family of systems that will include a very large land-based unmanned aerial vehicle and a medium-sized one for shipboard operations.
 
MUX was to be a key aviation component to ensure persistent, responsive, lethal, and adaptive full-spectrum operations by the MAGTF.
 
MUX program was planning to develop a network-enabled, digitally interoperable platform to complement the capabilities of MV-22B, F-35B/C, and the FVL platform.
 
As a multi-sensor, shipboard capable, expeditionary platform, MUX would have filled capability gaps in early warning, ISR, electronic warfare, communications relay, offensive air support, and possibly others such as self-escort and cargo.
 
The MUX program planned to develop a state-of-the-art unmanned system to complement the reach of the MAGTF with a digitally interoperable network node, capable of fires and tactical logistics.
 
The Group 5 MUX was to provide the MAGTF commander with robust, organic, all-weather, sea-based capabilities, to include an expeditionary multi-mission UAS capability with persistence at extensive operational radius (>350 nautical miles), as well as an aerial tactical distribution capability for the logistics combat element with improved C4 and situational awareness.
 
MUX’s range and persistence was going to complement the long-range capabilities of the F-35B/C, CH-53K, MV-22, and future vertical lift (FVL). MUX would have provided persistent battlespace awareness, electronic warfare, C4, logistics, and fires to all elements of the MAGTF.
 
The Marine Corps is researching and developing ULS-A. This medium-sized UAS will provide organic, responsive tactical logistics delivery tools to the logistics combat and ground combat elements. This capability will transform tactical logistics, enabling more assured logistics support with greater tempo in distributed operations.
 
The ULS-A is the airborne component to future distributed logistics concepts in development by HQMC Installations and Logistics
 
These emerging ULS-A capabilities will be highly automated and leverage autonomy developed as part of the Office of Naval Research’s Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility (AACUS) project.
 
The AACUS project enables an aerial platform to receive minimal guidance and navigate to a destination, then choose the optimal landing path to the requested landing site.
 
The emerging concept of unmanned logistics calls for a range of systems sized to support both squad-level and platoon-sized elements.
 
The air delivery specialist community is envisioned to provide oversight, training, and management of these emerging tools. Early prototype systems will be utilized for experimentation during ITX 3-18 in order to more fully refine the concept.
 
Marines have gained valuable lessons learned for the medium-sized UAS community. Those lessons are being incorporated by the VMU-1 Watchdogs as they complete their transition to the RQ-21A and begin support to MARFORPAC MEUs.
 
Simultaneously, the VMU-3 Phantoms continue to support contingency operations with the RQ-7B and will transition to the RQ-21A within the next year. The Reserve Marines of VMU-4 will also transition from the RQ-7B to the RQ-21A over this year, fulfilling a complete transition of the VMU squadrons to the shipboard capability and modular payload architecture the RQ-21A brings to the fight.
 
That modular payload capability is one of the significant improvements of the RQ-21A over the RQ-7B. Multiple payloads are being researched, developed, and fielded to leverage this capability to configure mission packages which best support the MAGTF.
 
These payloads will enhance battlefield awareness of the MAGTF with technologies such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and ground moving target indicator (GMTI) sensors, which can detect objects through clouds and vegetation.
 
Research is also ongoing in the study of hyperspectral payloads to detect explosives, as well as payloads in development to monitor and operate in a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
 
The standard capabilities of the RQ-21A are also being enhanced with improved EO and IR sensors and a laser designator.
 
Industry research continues to progress toward a BLOS capability for the RQ-21A, which could allow the MAGTF to extend these sensing capabilities to far greater ranges.
 
Advanced sensors and aircraft are a significant benefit to the MAGTF, but the ability to process and share the data generated by these sensors is critical to realizing the full capabilities of these systems.
 
The Tactical ISR Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination System (TIPS) Block 3 is the key enabler in the RQ-21A system which allows the MAGTF to leverage this data.
 
TIPS Block 3 allows the fusion of data collected by the RQ-21A with data from off-board sensors. This digitally interoperable system enables the data collected by RQ-21A to be integrated into networks of higher classification, while also integrating with Link-16, full motion video, Simplified Electronic Warfare System Interface, and other software applications.
 
TIPS Block 3 will act as a hub for the collection, cataloguing, and storage of full motion video, multi-intelligence sensor data, and target information.
 
This system determines optimal means to disseminate intelligence products. Future iterations of TIPS will use advanced algorithms to analyze data as it is collected and autonomously cue operators to pre-defined areas of interest.
 
As the RQ-21A Blackjack continues to pass program milestones and advance toward maturity, a process of continuous reliability improvements through lessons learned, training, and engineering is improving the availability of these capabilities to the MAGTF.
 
Marines are the key component of any weapons system, and the initial operational capability (IOC) of the RQ-21A Fleet Replacement Detachment aboard MCAS Cherry Point will ensure that the maintenance and operations personnel of the VMUs are trained to employ their weapons system for maximum advantage to the MAGTF.

This ticket schedule item is currently under review by several
dispatch teams. Installations have not yet responded with a quote

This ticket schedule item is currently under review by several
dispatch teams. Installations have not yet responded with a quote

This ticket schedule item is currently under review by several
dispatch teams. Installations have not yet responded with a quote

This ticket schedule item is currently under review by several
dispatch teams. Installations have not yet responded with a quote

This ticket schedule item is currently under review by several
dispatch teams. Installations have not yet responded with a quote

This ticket schedule item is currently under review by several
dispatch teams. Installations have not yet responded with a quote