Latest news with #MARSOC
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Yahoo
MARSOC is fusing traditionally rugged Marines with tech-curious ones
The Marine Corps' stand-in forces need to possess physical toughness and a natural inquisitiveness in order to succeed, Marine Corps Special Operations Command leaders said Tuesday at an annual defense conference. Maj. Gen. Peter Huntley, commander of Marine Corps Special Operations Command, spoke at a Modern Day Marine panel in Washington about how a changing military landscape requires multifaceted Marine Corps Raiders who possess both a grittiness synonymous with the Marine Corps and an eagerness to learn and adapt to evolving information systems. 'It's gonna be nasty, it's gonna be brutish, it's still gonna take tough, rugged people,' Huntley said of what the global military landscape requires of the Marine Corps Raider. But he said that environment would also drive the need for MARSOC personnel with the cognitive ability to adapt to new technologies and the desire to adapt. Marine Corps stand-in forces, outlined in the Marine Corps' plan to prepare for future conflicts, dubbed Force Design, are defined as small but lethal forces designed to operate within a contested area and disrupt the plans of an adversary. MARSOC fits the definition. The proliferation of unmanned defense systems and adversarial technological advancements, as observed in the Russia-Ukraine war, has served as a driving factor for MARSOC's modernization efforts, which have included acquiring leading defense technologies and recruiting physically tough, naturally curious Marines, leaders said at Tuesday's panel. Col. Shane Edwards of MARSOC G-8, who also spoke at the panel, said MARSOC's current fleet of technologies includes unmanned surface and underwater vessels and more than 45 aerial drones. He said artificial intelligence and small robotics, especially first-person view drones, are the biggest game changers for MARSOC. These systems are pivotal for contested environments in which adversaries are ramping up their own modernization efforts and eclipsing the sophistication of their previous systems. 'We're going up against enemies that have way better tech,' Edwards said. Panelists reiterated that a military landscape evolving at breakneck speed doesn't alter the basic necessity for exemplary Marines. Marines want to add counter-drone weapon to amphibious vehicle What makes MARSOC unique, Huntley said, is that their personnel are constantly deployed forward, providing Raiders the opportunity to consistently set the theater for partner forces and be a key solver of problem sites. 'It allows us to do the things that are uniquely soft,' Huntley said. 'Whether it's to help our partners fend off aggression by adversaries or to set conditions.' That way, he said, if conflict does potentially arise, the Raiders will be prepared. They wouldn't be starting on game day, because they will have done their homework. Panelists said MARSOC aims to support joint forces by providing information to help them achieve their objectives. In order to do that, the component is leveraging new technologies to provide Marine Corps Raiders with as much valuable information as possible. MARSOC is experimenting with unmanned systems — autonomous and semi-autonomous — that possess an increased range of movement that would allow MARSOC to navigate larger geographical swaths, Huntley said. Those might include surface maritime types of platforms that could travel long distances from shore to sea, or airborne ones as well, he said.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Marine Raiders won't be fighting in the Arctic anytime soon, general says
Marine Raiders are not expected to conduct Arctic operations in the near future because they are busy in other theaters, said Maj. Gen. Peter D. Huntley, who leads U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, MARSOC. Currently, MARSOC has a persistent presence in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Central Command theaters as well as East Africa, Huntley said in a statement to Task & Purpose. 'MARSOC deploys forces persistently to the three regions, and also conducts episodic engagement and training in other combatant commands,' Huntley said. 'We know that's coming, but right now it's not the alligator closest to the boat,' Huntley told reporters on Tuesday during this year's Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C. Activated in 2006, MARSOC is the Marine Corps component of U.S. Special Operations Command. Since then, they have deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, the Philippines, and elsewhere. The Pentagon released its Arctic strategy last year amid an increase in military cooperation between China and Russia in the region, including a joint patrol near Alaska in 2023. In February, the Army released a tactical manual explaining how soldiers and Marines should operate in Arctic weather, based in part on lessons from World War II, when the Army's 7th Infantry Division suffered more casualties from the cold weather than the enemy while retaking the Aleutian island of Attu in Alaska from the Japanese. On Monday, Huntley told reporters MARSOC knows that eventually individual Raiders and their units will both have to develop the capabilities needed to 'live, thrive, and survive' in an Arctic environment. 'For us, we are definitely thinking about that,' Huntley said. 'Currently, our day job is the theaters that we're employed in right now. That's got all of our attention, but what we recognize is in the future we are going to have to operate in Arctic, High North-type environments. But right now, at least for the near term, we don't see ourselves doing that.' The pace at which Raiders deploy has remained roughly the same since the height of the Global War on Terrorism, but MARSOC now gives Raiders more time at home between deployments, allowing them to train and helping to avoid burnout, Huntley said. Huntley also said he does not expect the command will grow significantly beyond its current size of roughly 3,000 personnel. 'I think we've hit kind of our sweet spot,' Huntley said. 'We're small, but it also allows us to keep quality very high on both the operators' side but also on the enablers' side. We could always grow, but if we got too big, I think that would water us down a little bit. Being small, I think, is the essence of [special operations forces]: High quality. So we're pretty happy there.' Since MARSOC was established, the U.S. military's focus has shifted from fighting insurgents and terrorist groups to preparing to fight a war against China, which has the world's largest navy and a formidable arsenal of missiles. When asked how Marine Raiders might conduct direct action missions — short-term operations by special operations forces to destroy, capture, exploit, or recover enemy targets — in the Indo-Pacific region, Huntley said such operations would be 'rough and brutal.' 'The people that are going to be in the fight at the tactical edge, it's going to be very similar to what our grandfathers saw in the Pacific campaign,' Huntley said. 'It's going to be freaking rough and nasty and all that stuff like that.' Marine in top enlisted spot leaving the Pentagon after just 2 years Army sergeant found guilty in spree of barracks break-ins and attempted murder End of the 'yeet': the standing power throw is out as new Army fitness test goes 'sex-neutral' for combat jobs Good luck figuring out the Air Force's algorithm for shaving waivers Army cuts athletic trainers from fitness teams, with medics to take up slack
