Although it was displayed as a complete HK416A5, Heckler & Koch exhibited the Reconnaissance Weapon Kit which was procured by the Marine Corps as an upper receiver group for the M27, transforming it into a A5-style upper with 11″ barrel and 2-stage gas block suppressed use during CQB. The Marines did not procure the attached suppressor or optics.
S R Technologies displayed a form factor model for the Marine Corps’ upcoming Expeditionary Dismount Backpack solution for EW/SIGINT missions. It incorporates two swappable payload slots, active cooling fans, and an advanced thermal cold wall design. It’s powered by two swappable BA-5590 batteries or can be attached to vehicle or shore power.
It utilizes Sensor Open System Architecture which relies on the use of cards inserted into a chassis to configure Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems rather than building a completely new system every time it needs to be modernized.
Even before GM Defense was selected to produce the US Army’s Infantry Squad Vehicle they were working on innovative solutions for the US military. Since then, they’ve done quite a bit of work on both electric and hybrid systems.
Their latest project is for the Defense Innovation Unit’s Stable Tactical Expeditionary Electric Power (STEEP) Program on behalf of the Marine Corps which seeks to offer a tactical microgrid and energy management capabilities in austere locations.
Leveraging GM’s Ultium Platform which is used in their electric vehicles, they are building a prototype to provide uninterruptable and sustainable power. GM’s STEEP solution offers intelligent tactical microgrid capabilities that work with hydrogen-powered generators, stationary and mobile battery electric power or existing fuel-powered generators to support efficient power management and distribution.
In a release from GM earlier today, GM Defense president Steve duMont stated, “This contract award demonstrates our ability to leverage advanced commercial technologies and investments from our parent company, GM, to reduce warfighter fuel consumption, and lower acoustic and thermal signatures, while providing efficient energy at the tactical edge. We are proud to win another contract award with DIU, whose mission to accelerate the adoption of commercial technology across the U.S. military aligns with our efforts to transition global defense and government customers to a more electric, autonomous and connected future.”
This is GM Defense’s second win with DIU having previously worked on prototyping a battery system based on GM’s Ultium Platform in support of the Jumpstart for Advanced Battery Standardization (JABS) solicitation.
QUANTICO, Va. —
“The Marine Corps requires unmanned air, surface, and ground systems to fully exploit our inherent expeditionary nature and capabilities. When operating forward, in small groups, under austere conditions, the ability to maximize unmanned systems to create outsized effects for our allies and against our adversaries is a key element of our future success.”
– Gen Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps
The United States has long enjoyed a technological advantage as our robust industrial base and strong economy have provided our military with exquisite combat systems. As a result, the U.S. has had been the preeminent global power since the end of the Cold War. However, the decreasing cost of technology combined with commercial availability of equipment that provide an asymmetric effect means the U.S. military must find new and innovative ways to leverage this growth in technology. To do so, the U.S. military must be prepared to incorporate new warfighting techniques to meet the growing threat of an increasingly technologically advanced adversary.
Today, the Marine Corps is leading the services in development and integration of these emerging technologies. Paired with the sound combined arms doctrine that defines our Marine Corps, Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Systems (IRAS) provides vastly increased situational awareness across all echelons of warfare. All-domain sensors that detect the enemy throughout the electromagnetic spectrum and pass real time targeting data over vast distances makes the battlefield increasingly transparent for the individual Marine and up through the chain of command, enabling sensors, weapons, and decision makers to rapidly close kill webs and destroy the enemy.
The ability to exploit the vast amount of information being received in the combat environment presents a cognitive challenge, as the commander’s decision-making becomes increasingly overloaded. Conversely, the vast amount of information also creates opportunity. Those forces that can most rapidly and effectively process information have a distinct advantage.
Software developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning lighten the mental burden by rapidly organizing data in a logical and prioritized manner. Through rapid prioritization, Marines can “make sense” and act before the enemy. By establishing this competitive advantage, the adversary targeting, and decision cycle is disrupted, increasing survivability and expediting movement and maneuver. Ultimately, the combination of Marine decision makers with IRAS creates tempo that cannot be matched by the enemy.
As the operating environment becomes increasingly contested through the adversary’s use of anti-access/area denial systems, the ability to sustain our operating forces inside the enemy weapons engagement zone presents a significant logistical challenge. The physical burden on Marines to carry more supplies and ammunition inhibits their ability to rapidly displace and maneuver, creating exposure to the enemy and risk to the force. IRAS will lighten the Marines’ physical load, expedite staging and transfer supplies across vast distances in the maritime environment. Using a range of air, land, and surface logistical connector vehicles will enable ship-to-shore sustainment of maneuvering units, while reducing the risk to legacy manned resupply aircraft.
To maximize the benefits of IRAS, these systems must operate through networked, collaborative, autonomy. By fusing data from distributed platforms and operating from common mission controllers, individual warfighters will be able to control multiple platforms and payloads to accomplish their mission. Working with leading industry partners and research agencies, the Marine Corps is developing vehicles that will be able to conduct swarming maneuvers and attacks. These swarming vehicles leverage numerous systems to sense each other across the network, process information at machine speeds, and enable kinetic effects with maximum efficiency. This technology will decrease the number of munitions required to create strategic effects, rapidly closing kill webs and further decreasing the logistics burden.
The category of warfighting tools historically referred to as “unmanned” provides an incomplete description of these capabilities. While this was a commonly accepted term, the human element in warfighting should not be discounted. Most important to successful employment of IRAS is human oversight and interaction for successful employment. Additionally, as IRAS are interoperable, modular, and secure allowing for streamlined training and proficiency, reducing cost, time to train, and manpower requirements.
As the threat and operating environment continue to change over time, the future remains clouded in ambiguity. If technology growth continues its current, exponential path, Marines in the future may find themselves equipped with physical augmentations, and hybrid virtual reality optics. Furthermore, teaming between legacy manned and IRAS fighter jets will also enable our cutting-edge aircraft. Manned aircraft will become more survivable, and their signature optimized. Weaponized IRAS aircraft will execute the will of the pilots and conduct dogfighting by predictive modeling to defeat enemy formations before they can even maneuver.
While ambitious and imaginative, the Marine Corps is exploring technologies that can someday make this vision a reality. The exponential growth of IRAS converging with new warfighting concepts will enable Marines to operate in distributed environments, with low cost, persistent, signature managed systems. Future Marines must be prepared to fight in new ways to confront the evolving threat, and commanders must build trust in IRAS to ensure their formations maintain the tactical advantage with maximum lethality. Leaders at all echelons must also develop feedback mechanisms to allow the service to understand the evolving needs of the warfighter and equip them with the latest IRAS that allow them to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy.
Story by Maj Keenan Chirhart, Marine Corps Combat Development Command
Photo by Cpl Tyler Andrews
Three things about this new helmet for maintainers which replaces the classic Cranial.
1. It’s built by Team Wendy and based on the Exfil bump helmet.
2. This is one of the rare occasions where Marines get something first.
3. They are coming in custom colors for each of the aviation specialties, for example Red for Aviation Ordnance.
The Naval Aircrew Systems Program Office is fielding new headgear, the Head Gear Unit Number 98/Personal Use (HGU-98/P), that improves both head and hearing protection for fleet Marine Corps aviation maintainers.
The program office incorporated the latest advancements and information gained from market research, lab testing and fleet assessments to select the new Marine Corps maintenance cranial, the Team Wendy Exfil Light Tactical Polymer helmet, which is a Commercial-off-the-Shelf solution.
“The HGU-98/P provides improved impact protection and increased hearing protection, which are long overdue improvements that our maintainers deserve,” said Capt. Carey Castelein, program manager.
Since the inception of protective headgear in the 1950s, a major challenge has been to design helmets that offer the required impact and hearing protection while providing a system that provides a comfortable fit. Because flight lines and flight decks are notoriously loud, a safe and comfortable helmet is mission critical.
The new cranial comes in two sizes and an alternate H-shaped back retention system to accommodate a hair bun. The HGU-98/P also features two different styles of hearing protection, both rail mounted to the helmet, with either X4 ear cups for a slimmer fit or X5 with larger ear cups but with better sound attenuation.
“Through research, test and fleet assessments, our team was able to determine the best possible solution for improved head and hearing protection, taking into account cost, performance and user feedback,” said Jennifer Bartnick, program office team lead.
Squadrons that began receiving the HGU-98/P flight deck helmet system in October 2022 have given favorable feedback. Fielding to Marine Corps aviation units will continue through the end of the year, and the cranial with additional capability will begin delivery next year.
From the Naval Aircrew Systems Program Office
SAN DIEGO – 16 May 2023 – Following delivery of the first two MQ-9A Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) that were procured upon the successful completion of a Company-Owned Company-Operated (COCO) Deployment Contract, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) are celebrating the delivery of the first new-build MQ-9A Extended Range (ER) UAS to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) on April 19, 2023. The delivery of the first new-build MQ-9A ER is part of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Unmanned Expeditionary (MUX) Program.
“It’s exciting to make this initial delivery to NAVAIR, which strengthens the relationship between GA-ASI, the USMC, and NAVAIR, while launching the MUX MALE (Medium-Altitude, Long-Endurance) Program of Record from concept into reality,” said GA-ASI Senior Vice President for MQ-9 Systems, Fred Darlington.
GA-ASI was selected by the USMC in 2022 to deliver eight MQ-9A ER UAS as part of the ARES Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (ID/IQ) contract.
The MQ-9A ER is designed with field-retrofittable capabilities such as wing-borne fuel pods and reinforced landing gear that extend the aircraft’s endurance to more than 30 hours while further increasing its operational flexibility. The aircraft provides long-endurance, persistent surveillance capabilities with Full-Motion Video and Synthetic Aperture Radar/Moving Target Indicator/Maritime Mode Radar. An extremely reliable aircraft, MQ-9A ER is equipped with a fault-tolerant flight control system and a triple-redundant avionics system architecture. It is engineered to meet and exceed manned aircraft reliability standards.
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. —
Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, participated in a scout platoon mobile training team event at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, March 20-31.
The training increased the Marines’ knowledge of scouting and reconnaissance fundamentals to test future infantry battalion scout platoon capabilities.
The Marines and Sailors of 1st Marine Division continue to lead the way in Infantry Battalion Experiment 2030, or IBX-30, initiatives. The training the battalion recently completed was another area the Marine Corps is looking to develop more versatile and lethal units to compete in austere environments. The scout platoon transition is also part of a renewed focus on basic reconnaissance and looks to provide ground combat commanders with early indications and warnings, real-time battlefield analysis, and undetected observation of adversary forces.
“The training allows our scout platoon to assist the commander’s decision-making ability and also extend the battlefield through employment of small unmanned aerial systems.”
Capt Mike Larson, the company commander for Weapons Company, 2nd Bn., 7th Marines
“A likely vision of warfare centers on the recon/counter-recon contest,” U.S. Marine Gen. David H. Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, wrote in his 2019 Commandant’s Planning Guidance. “This demands an agile, stealthy, tactical system employing forces that are able to locate, target, and fire precisely first.”
Under the guidance of a mobile training team from Advanced Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry – West, the “War Dogs” of 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines went through a challenging program of instruction designed to give the foundational skills expected of a scout platoon member. The course focused on individual reconnaissance skills such as reporting, surveillance, communications, and patrolling. The course also introduced various collective skills on scout employment in the offense and defense.
“The scout platoon mobile training team provided the foundational reconnaissance and surveillance skills that will be required moving forward for the V27 scout platoon,” explained Maj. Neil Simmons, the operations officer for AITB. “As we continue to transition toward this FD2030 concept, these competences will be key factors to our success in future operating environments.”
The 10-day training event included instruction and practical application on all-weather, ground, reconnaissance and surveillance tactics, techniques, and procedures with an emphasis on support to battalion intelligence collections. Throughout the course, the instructor cadre stressed the importance of effectively operating in an all-domain environment to include capabilities not historically found within an infantry battalion.
“2/7’s scout platoon learned how to effectively operate and manage their signature in a multi-domain environment, to include the electromagnetic spectrum, while also integrating enhanced technical capabilities such as ground sensors and special intelligence/electronic warfare teams,” said Capt. Mike Larson, the company commander for Weapons Company, 2nd Bn., 7th Marines. “The training allows our scout platoon to assist the commander’s decision-making ability and also extend the battlefield through employment of small unmanned aerial systems.”
Scout platoon integration is the most recent step in the IBX-30 evaluation process. With an organic scout platoon, along with other integrated units, weapons, and skillsets, future infantry battalions can provide more versatile, more experienced, and more lethal forces to commanders around the world.
Story by Capt Joseph DiPietro, 1st Marine Division
Photo by LCpl Emma Gray
Funds allow the nonprofit organization to continue providing emergency financial
assistance to active-duty and retired Navy and Marine Corps personnel and their families.
WASHINGTON (March 27, 2023) — After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society hosted their black-tie fundraising ball on Saturday, March 25, 2023 and raised over $500,000. Senior military leaders, NMCRS supporters, corporate executives and military families gathered in support of the organization’s mission of providing financial, educational and other assistance to active duty and retired members of the Sea Services of the United States, their family members and survivors.
The event, themed “Together Again,” included a reception, dinner, silent auction and dancing. General Eric Smith, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps; The Honorable Russell Rumbaugh, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management & Comptroller); and Vice Admiral Rick Cheeseman, Chief of Naval Personnel and Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Manpower, Personnel and Training started the evening off by applauding NMCRS volunteers and employees for extending the special kind of care and compassion that assists clients when they need it the most.
Entertainment was provided by the United States Navy Band Cruisers, the Navy’s premier popular music group. Distinguished speakers included LtGen. Robert R. Ruark, president and CEO of NMCRS; Sergio Rodriguez, NMCRS volunteer and 2022 Navy Spouse of the Year. Margaret Brennan, moderator of “Face the Nation” on CBS, served as emcee for the evening. Brennan’s spouse serves in the United States Marines Corps Reserve.
“The Society is proud to play an important role in the financial, personal and family readiness of those who wear the cloth of our nation,” said Ruark during his speech. “Long deployments, family separations, frequent relocations and other unique environmental factors create exceptional hardships for those who serve and their families. NMCRS exists to be a helpful resource when needed.”
Since the ball was last held in 2019, NMCRS has provided over $141 million in financial aid and served over 230,000 clients.
The event was demonstrative of the organization’s commitment to providing Sea Service members with urgent financial assistance, financial education, scholarships and much more. USAA was the presenting sponsor and the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. served as the venue.
“Our goal at NMCRS is to make it as easy as possible for Marines and Sailors to ask for help,” continued Ruark. “In everything we do, we are preparing clients for a solid financial future.”
