Latest news with #L-MADIS
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Top Marine calls for affordable, lethal and autonomous systems
The Marine Corps' highest-ranking officer continues to emphasize the service's key mission in crisis response through its expeditionary units, while asking industry to give the Corps affordable and autonomous ways to modernize the force. Marine Corps Commandant Eric Smith told the audience at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition Thursday that the force design decisions made over the past six years have put new capabilities in the hands of crucial formations, such as the Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU. 'This is about more than ships, it's about deterrence and denial,' Smith said. 'That is why the 3.0 [Amphibious Ready Group] MEU matters, it gives our leaders options.' A 3.0 presence means a three-ship ARG-MEU, each deployed out of the East Coast, one out of the West Coast and a third on episodic deployments out of Okinawa, Japan. Top Marine's deployment plans face familiar wrinkle: Inert Navy ships An ARG includes an assault ship, a landing ship with helicopter platform and a dock landing ship. The MEU contains a battalion landing team, ground combat element, aviation combat element and combat logistics element to form a Marine Air Ground Task Force, or MAGTF. To achieve that, the Corps needs 31 amphibious ships at a readiness level of 80%. Demand is higher from combatant commands, Smith said. The demand is more than five ARG MEUs, the most requested asset behind the Carrier Strike Group. Readiness levels hover at around 50%, Smith said in early April at the Navy League's annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition. That's because following two decades of land-based wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Corps had largely not maintained its fleet. Money for maintenance and shipbuilding went to those wars instead. And Smith wants more capabilities for those MEUs as the service battles an amphibious ship shortage. 'What I need is affordable, lethal, autonomous, light and I can fund at budget time,' Smith said. Some of those new developments include the Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or MADIS, and its lighter version, the L-MADIS. The system still needs more autonomous solutions to get after a major threat – drone swarms. 'The big thing that really keeps me up at night is swarms,' Col. Andrew Konicki, head of ground-based air defense for Marine Corps Systems Command, said Wednesday. Striking those threats from aboard ship or on shore is vital to keeping Marines alive. 'That is how we're going to say ahead of the adversary, with autonomy,' Smith said. Thirteen of 21 Light Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems, or L-MADIS, have been fielded over the past three years. That light system was fielded to the 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion, 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment in 2024. It handles group I and II drone threats. Marine Expeditionary Units have used the system when crossing various maritime chokepoints, and it has proved effective in the maritime environment, despite the system being built mainly as a ground-based air defense system, Konicki said. Seven more of the larger MADIS system will be fielded by September, bringing the Corps total to 20, with full fielding expected by 2033. That's for air defense. For a more offensive approach, the Corps expects to receive four-dozen mobile fires platforms, dubbed the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS. The NMESIS is made up of a Naval Strike Missile mounted on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle platform with semi-autonomous and autonomous capabilities to launch remotely. The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, a newly created unit for fighting in the littorals, or waters near land, received the first six NMESIS in November. The Hawaii-based unit formed in 2021. The service then established the 12th MLR on Okinawa, Japan, with plans for a third rotational MLR on Guam. Six of the NMESIS systems are set to field with 12th MLR beginning March 2026. All these moves and the push for new, better equipment have a singular aim, he said. 'Modernization with a clear purpose – to keep Marines lethal and survivable,' Smith said.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Marines have air defense, but need a way to defeat drone swarms
Marines are fielding a host of options for knocking down airborne threats, from small drones to cruise missiles. Still, what they need is a way to handle potential drone swarms, service officials said. 'The big thing that really keeps me up at night is swarms,' Col. Andrew Konicki, head of ground-based air defense for Marine Corps Systems Command, said at the Modern Day Marine military exposition in Washington on Wednesday. Konicki set the scene with two anecdotes, one from the Ohio State University football game against the University of Maryland in 2023, which was delayed due to a drone over the field. The other was the 2020 Beijing Olympics drone demonstration in which a coordinated drone swarm presented a light show to millions of spectators. This Marine unit now has its own tool to blast drones out of the sky Both presented frightening prospects. The football game could have been a single drone dropping baby powder, which some might worry could be a biological threat, and the Olympics scenario raised questions about how a small Marine unit, or even a lone Marine, would counter hundreds or potentially thousands of drones targeting their position. On the small-drone level, the Marines have deployed 13 of 21 Light Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems, or L-MADIS, over the past three years. That tailored system was fielded to the 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion with the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment in 2024. It handles group I and II drone threats. Recent fielding of the L-MADIS system with the Marine Expeditionary Units proved effective in maritime environment despite the system being built mainly as a ground-based air defense system, Konicki said. For larger threats, the MADIS, a more powerful version of its light brother, will see seven more systems deployed by September in addition to the 13 already in the inventory, Konicki said. 'The rapid rise of [unmanned aerial systems], used for surveillance, targeting and attacks, has made advanced air defense systems like MADIS critical to protecting our Marines and preserving our combat effectiveness,' Lt. Col. Craig Warner, future weapons systems product manager, said in December 2024. 'MADIS not only detects, tracks and defeats aerial threats but also serves as a powerful deterrent, signaling to adversaries that their aerial assets will not succeed against U.S. forces.' On the even larger end of the spectrum, the Corps expects to field its first platoon with the Medium Range Intercept Capability, or MRIC, an anti-cruise missile system that's proven 'highly effective' in operational testing, the colonel said. Over recent experimentation and operational testing, the Marines have identified key areas to improve. A top priority is defeating swarms, Konicki said. Quickly following are munition-agnostic launch systems, enhanced passive sensing, a dismounted sensing and defeat capability and training support both in virtual and live spaces, he said. The colonel would especially like to see passive sensing capability for the MRIC, he said.
