CAMP SCHWAB, OKINAWA, Japan —

From Aug. 11 to 22, 2025, U.S. Marines and Sailors with 4th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division, trained with, integrated, and expanded their use of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). For the first time, Marines flew untethered sUAS over an Okinawa-based, Marine Corps installation.

This aligns directly with the Secretary of Defense’s drone modernization guidance, released July 10, 2025, which prioritizes training with autonomous capabilities, leaning into adaptability, and pursuing joint-force integration with these emerging technologies.

“The Marines and Sailors with 4th Marine Regiment are getting use to utilizing and innovating with technology that we haven’t used in the past,” said Capt. Wesley Pond, Regimental Assistant Air Officer, 4th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division and lead planner of the sUAS and autonomous, unmanned ground vehicle (A-UGV) training on Camp Schwab. “We are helping them to see new things, new ways to find an adversary and new ways of moving about the battlespace.”

The Marines and Sailors attended a course with the Skydio X2D sUAS to sustain their proficiency with the system. This in-depth training allowed some servicemembers to receive an additional Military Occupational Specialty as sUAS operators after they completed all the required training objectives. The Marines in the course were able to take their increased proficiency in sUAS employment back to their unit to better integrate the systems in future training evolutions.

“Marines of any rank are encouraged to participate in the courses in order to receive the qualifications to operate group one UAS,” said Pond. “This in total increases the Marine Corps’ combat effectiveness by having capable Marines, of any MOS, at the ready to operate drones in any situation.”

“We will continue to push the metaphorical football down the field and keep getting better. We are going to field the Marines with the weapons and the systems they need to enhance their lethality, to go confidently into the next battlespace and know they are walking into a fight that they are well prepared for.”

– said Capt. Wesley Pond, Regimental Assistant Air Officer, 4th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division and lead planner of the sUAS and autonomous, unmanned ground vehicle (A-UGV) training on Camp Schwab.

The Marines and Sailors with 4th Marine Regiment refined shared procedures for experimental methods of extracting an emergency casualty via the Mission Master. This A-UGV platform can assist with tactical transport, resupply, and casualty evacuation, reducing danger to dismounted troops across a wide range of missions, including high-risk situations.

“This is the first time our corpsmen in the 4th Marines Regimental Aid Station have had the opportunity to train with and use an autonomous system as a CASEVAC platform,” said U.S. Navy Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman David Long, senior enlisted leader, 4th Marines Regimental Aid Station.

In this training scenario, the Mission Master was used to carry wounded servicemembers out of harm’s way on the battlefield, enabling the Corpsmen to quickly and tactically bring the casualty behind friendly lines.

“This takes a huge load off the humans that would previously have to physically carry that casualty on a litter a long distance or we would have to use a large, loud tactical vehicle,” said Long. “It also allows us to provide treatment enroute to the casualty collection point for follow-on care. This capability has the potential to help us save lives and quickly return more Marines back to the fight.”

As the future of warfighting continues to evolve, 4th Marine Regiment continues to modernize as well.

“This training demonstrates the 4th Marine Regiment’s commitment to train as we fight and to compete with adversary capabilities now,” said U.S. Marine Corps Col. Richard Barclay, commanding officer, 4th Marine Regiment. “Training isn’t just about preparing for a future fight but maintaining a decisive edge in the current operating environment. What Capt. Pond, the 3d Marine Division, and Marine Corps Installations Pacific team have achieved is just the start of much more work to be done within the realms of sUAS and UGV training.”

Cpl Joaquin Carlos Dela Torre

3rd Marine Division

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