The Marine Corps is about to start experimenting with handheld counter-unmanned aerial systems to outfit deployed Marines, the deputy commandant for combat development and integration said Tuesday at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference.
The effort has been in the works for more than a year, with a competition held in September to help the Corps decide which systems to buy.
“One of the things that is apparent to all of us is that unmanned aerial systems are a threat not just to infantry Marines, but to all Marines,” Lt. Gen. Eric Austin said. “We’re currently going to field the prototypes of counter-UAS capabilities for dismounted Marines, and we’re excited to get that out with some of our next deploying units in order to protect them on the move.”
The service shifted some funding to buy the new systems, he said, which will be tested along with larger counter-drone systems they’ve procured as part of their ground-based air defense program.
The dismounted systems are key, the head of Training and Education Command said Tuesday, because they aren’t as conspicuous as some of the existing systems that are meant to protect larger formations but are also easier for an enemy to target.
“It has been a long time, maybe since World War II, since a member of an infantry squad on the ground actually had to look up or over his shoulder do anything other than clear an aircraft hot, or call in a medevac or something like that,” Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson said.
Now, the Corps is preparing to fight not only an enemy with its own air power, but particularly with its own ability to swarm drones.
“So it is a different way of thinking, and it harkens back to the early ’90s … that kind of Cold-War era where we actually trained small units in things like small unit defense against air attack, and we put a lot more focus in the camouflage covering, concealment, with an eye towards who’s looking at us from above, not just who’s looking at us through their sites on the ground on the other side of the battlefield,” Watson said.
The service has also made moves to harden its bases against drone attacks. In March, Anduril won a contract to install and maintain non-kinetic counter-UAS systems, meaning approaching drones would be disabled with electromagnetic jamming or other means that don’t involve shooting them down.
“Nowadays, we’re getting to a point where they’re going to be able to carry a guided hand grenade, throw it up in the air, with a loitering capability, and somebody behind them is going to be able to guide that to everyone in this room,” said Maj. Gen. Jason Woodworth, head of Marine Corps Installations Command.
Back at the unit level, it will come down to being as undetectable as possible, Watson said.
“Right now, there’s been a lot of grassroots efforts at the Marine Division level going on into signature management, both physical and…thermal signatures, but also understanding what you look like on the [electromagnetic] spectrum at the smallest-unit level, and being able to fight within that.”
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