QUANTICO, Va. —

In August, the Marine Corps began hosting drone task force summits to chart a way forward for operational units across the Marine Corps to effectively employ small drones.

The drone task force leverages work done over the last several years by various units, including Marine Corps Special Operations Command, the infantry battalion experiment (IBX), and the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team (MCADT) to hone techniques for using small surveillance and lethal attack drones.

The purpose of the task force is to organize, train, and equip Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) elements to achieve proficiency in employing both lethal and non-lethal unmanned aerial systems at scale. Supporting this effort is the years-long development, testing, and fielding of existing organic precision fires systems to Marine infantry units.

The near-term goal is to enable the Marine infantry squad to achieve concentrated effects at operationally relevant distances, providing a decisive advantage in distributed operational environments. The Secretary of Defense’s “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance” memo will accelerate these efforts by paving the way for faster procurement pipelines to provide units the equipment and training they need to remain at the forefront of drone adaptation into the MAGTF.  

The drone task force is incorporating best practices and lessons learned from the Fleet Marine Forces with cost-effective solutions for operating first-person-view (FPV) drones. These solutions include advanced manufacturing techniques to build and repair drone components in austere, contested environments. The task force will allow the service to quickly address challenges the Fleet Marine Force faces and facilitate timely, cost-efficient solutions to enhance the lethality of all elements of the MAGTF.

Some efforts to accelerate the use of surveillance and weaponized drones to Marines are:

UAS/C-UAS integration handbook for best practices

Mature training programs to expand the number of experienced operators in the Fleet Marine Force

Updated Blue List systems for the service to purchase

Signature management training

Establishment of communities of interest across the Marine Corps

Integration of SUAS in future marksmanship competitions

Collaboration with the Defense Innovation Unit to purchase and distribute FPV and one-way attack drones.

Establishment of the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team to standardize tactics, techniques and procedures

Continued infrastructure improvements and maturation of training areas to accommodate the incorporation of drones into combined arms training and exercises.

Continued efforts to develop a common ecosystem and command and control architecture.

The Marine Corps Attack Drone Team, established in January 2025, by Training Command and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, has driven greater understanding of lethal UAS opportunities and challenges for the Marine Corps. Based at Weapons Training Battalion, Quantico, the MCADT builds on the Marine Corps’ legacy of precision weapons expertise to advance another layer of lethality for infantry battalions and littoral combat teams. It addresses the rapid progression and proliferation of armed FPV drone technologies and aims to translate lessons from modern drone warfare into doctrine, training, and fleet integration.

Through agile experimentation, MCADT has made significant progress in accelerating the service’s adoption of armed FPV drones. The first kinetic live-fire FPV drone strike was conducted at Quantico on April 24, 2025, demonstrating real-world lethality at a fraction of traditional costs: less than $5,000 per strike compared to over $80,000 for current infantry battalion organic missiles. With effective ranges of up to 20 kilometers, these drones dramatically expand the reach of small-unit formations, far surpassing the 1–2 kilometer range of current systems available to rifle squads and platoons.

In parallel, MCADT partnered with the Marine Corps Tactics and Operations Group to draft the Corps’ first Armed Drone Employment Tactics Techniques and Procedures pamphlet, which will serve as the baseline training resource for squad certification beginning this fall. To further refine employment techniques and accelerate proficiency, the team also initiated the Service’s first Armed FPV Drone Employment Competitions, formalized in Marine Corps guidance earlier this year. These competitions will evolve into intermediate and advanced training venues modeled after the Competition-in-Arms Program, leveraging the same proven approach long used by the Marine Corps Shooting Team to refine tactics and weapon system design. The inaugural competition is scheduled for October 2025 at MCB Quantico, followed by events in INDOPACOM at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, in December, and MCB Hawaii in January 2026.

Under the drone task force’s governance, these ongoing experimental initiatives will continuously inform the concurrent service effort to fully field lethal drones at scale to a force that is organized, trained, and equipped for the modern battlefield.

By Lt. Col. Eric Flanagan | Marine Corps Combat Development Command