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Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Marine Corps creates attack drone team as arms race with Russia, China heats up
The U.S. Marine Corps established an attack drone team earlier this year to respond to the rapid development of armed first-person view (FPV) drone technology and tactics, offering a glimpse into the evolving landscape of modern warfare and how future battles could be fought. The Marine Corps Attack Drone Team (MCADT) will be based at the Weapons Training Battalion, Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. The FPV drones used will offer squad-level lethality at a range of up to 20 kilometers, nearly 12.5 miles, for under $5,000, compared to more expensive weapons systems with less capability, according to a press release from the service. "MCADT is committed to rapidly integrating armed first-person view drones into the FMF [Fleet Marine Force], enhancing small-unit lethality and providing organic capabilities that warfighters currently lack," said Maj. Alejandro Tavizon, the headquarters company commander at Weapons Training Battalion and officer in charge of MCADT. "By leveraging emerging technologies and refining drone employment tactics, we are ensuring that Marines remain agile, adaptive, and lethal in the modern battlespace." Brett Velicovich, an Army veteran with extensive drone experience, told Fox News Digital that the creation of MCADT has been long overdue as the United States enters a drone arms race with adversaries like China, Russia and Iran. Read On The Fox News App "For a while now, we haven't had the needed technology, the needed expertise in low-cost, highly scalable, lethal drone technology that, frankly, is going to be the next part of every piece of the next war that we fight," he said. Velicovich argued that the United States is far behind other countries, especially China, when it comes to the production of drone technology, and needs to start looking at drones not just as surveillance assets, but as a form of ammunition. He pointed to Russia's war in Ukraine and the large-scale advancements in domestic drone production that have allowed Ukrainian forces to strike multi-million-dollar enemy tanks and vehicles with drones that cost a few hundred dollars. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced in December that Ukraine manufactured over 1.5 million FPV drones in 2024, including reconnaissance, kamikaze and long-range deep-strike drones. Domestically produced drones accounted for 96.2% of all unmanned aerial vehicles used by Ukrainian forces during the year. "You have companies and manufacturing plants in Ukraine building 100,000 drones per month. One manufacturing plant is building 100,000 of these things per month. That's real scale. That's where we need to be," Velicovich told Fox News Digital. The WSJ, citing one Department of Defense estimate, reported that the U.S. has the capacity to build up to 100,000 drones a year. Us, European Allies Demand Action To End Russia's Use Of Iranian Drones In Ukraine The number is far below what the United States' adversaries, such as Russia and China, produce in a year, raising national security concerns. Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission in late April, said that almost all of the country's defense enterprises had met their orders in full last year, highlighting Moscow's efforts to ramp up its war machine. "Over 1.5 million drones of various types were delivered, with about 4,000 so-called FPV drones equipped with virtual reality control systems supplied to the frontlines daily," Putin said, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin. "I know well, just as many of you here do, that these weapons are still in short supply. We need more of them." Chinese technology company DJI is also making significant inroads in drone production, in both U.S. and Asian markets. It touts itself as the world's leading manufacturer of consumer and commercial drones. Craig Singleton, a senior China fellow at the non-partisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that the Shenzhen-based company dominates the global drone market, controlling more than 70% of the worldwide market share. "That's alarming, because DJI drones are essentially data collectors for Beijing — giving China potential access to sensitive infrastructure imagery, flight patterns, and more. It's not just a market-share problem — it's a national security threat," he said. Ai-powered Attack Drones Take Flight Singleton added that the U.S. doesn't need to match China drone for drone, but it needs a production floor that's sustainable, somewhere around a minimum of 250,000 drones per year. "We are absolutely in a drone arms race with China — and losing isn't an option. Success will depend on scaling production, protecting sensitive supply chains, and turbocharging innovation," he said. "It's not just about building drones — it's about fielding smarter, cheaper and more resilient swarms faster than Beijing." The U.S. National Drone Association will host the Military Drone Crucible Championship in Florida later this summer, where the Marines and the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment will compete to demonstrate their drone skills and tactics in modern article source: US Marine Corps creates attack drone team as arms race with Russia, China heats up
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Marine Corps Drone Team Competitions Are Coming to a Unit Near You Soon
The Marine Corps is expanding its unmanned aerial vehicle portfolio by fielding competitive drone teams across the fleet over the coming year, one of the service's top officers said Wednesday. The teams will mirror the newly unveiled Marine Corps Attack Drone Team, or MCADT, a specialized unit based out of Quantico, Virginia, that is serving as the ground-level epicenter of the service's urgent UAV needs. In early January, the Marine Corps stood up the all-volunteer MCADT as an answer to the world's rapid proliferation of drones, noting it would integrate lessons learned from the ongoing war in Ukraine, compete against other services, and serve as the technical and cultural model for units across the service that will soon see their own teams pitted against each other. Read Next: 'This Is Going to Be a Challenge': Service Officials Detail Fallout from Civilian Resignations Pushed by Trump Starting next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, the Marine Corps is "going to be doing an attack drone competition where we'll field teams from across the Marine Corps to compete internal to the service," Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, the commanding general of Training and Education Command, said during a media roundtable at the Modern Day Marine expo in Washington, D.C., this week. While Watson did not say which units would participate in the competitions, the events serve as a way to help the service build its program more rapidly in the absence of actual combat, such as in Ukraine where an active adversary "forces them to evolve very quickly." "The closest thing we can do is put ourselves out there in competition, and so the attack drone team really is our mechanism for forcing that, putting the service's reputation on the line with not only the other services, but a bunch of 14-year-olds with skinny arms and long hair and glasses that are probably going to kick our ass the first time we get out there in the drone competition," Watson said. "But we think that puts us under a level of pressure that will help us to iterate faster, particularly in the first-person-view drone space, which is one of the places we've got the most room to grow," he added. Pentagon leaders and industry professionals are sprinting toward ways to make drones scalable, cheap and replicable. But the introduction of drones to the Marine Corps has not been without its challenges, officials said throughout the expo. previously reported that leaders felt they were behind the curve on building their drone repertoire and faced some challenges, including air space management and acquiring parts. "I think what we're desperate to do inside the Marine Corps at this point is adopt new technologies that we're seeing being used throughout the world, but hold on to what we value as Marines in the way that we fight," Col. Sean Hoewing, director of the Capabilities Development Directorate's Aviation Combat Element, said Thursday. "And so there are challenges when you introduce [a] large-scale number of aircraft that aren't traditionally controlled by folks that are familiar with operating inside of airspace." But junior members of the MCADT said they have been diligently working through those problems over the last four months, such as identifying which parts "break fastest" so they can quickly reproduce them, Cpl. Hunter Zenoni, a weapons repairer on the team said, or fine-tuning motor skills to manipulate the drone's thrust, turns and pitch. They said they share those lessons with other Marine units and services. "It's still a struggle," Cpl. Timothy Brockup, an infantryman assigned to the MCADT, said about adjusting task organizations and tactical use for drones. "But it's a struggle that we are overcoming with just more repetitions, practice and the more insight and research we put into this." The MCADT will take part in its first competition starting in early June against the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, the event likely being a model for how these newly fielded drone teams across the fleet will compete with each other. "We're not too terribly worried," Brockup said, adding the MCADT has been consistently training and reviewing their tactics in preparation for facing the Rangers. Later, he added: "if you want to put it on the record, by the way -- yeah, we're gonna win." Related: Every Marine a Drone Operator? New Team Aims to Compete, Set Standards for Unmanned Aircraft Warfare.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Yahoo
Every Marine A Drone Pilot: Individual Lethality To Go From Meters To Kilometers
The increasing prevalence of weaponized drones, especially first-person-view (FPV) kamikaze types, and other man-portable precision munitions could lead to a change in the U.S. Marine Corps' famous mantra of 'every Marine a rifleman,' according to the general who oversees the training of the service's new recruits. Marine Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, who is currently head of Marine Corps Training and Education Command (TECOM), talked yesterday about how the evolving nature of modern warfare is also impacting the very core of his service's warrior ethos. Watson's remarks came during a panel discussion on Marine Corps modernization at the Navy League's Sea Air Space 2025 exhibition. 'One of our mantras, kind of bumper stickers, which has real meaning for us culturally as a service, is sort of 'every Marine [a] rifleman,'' Watson said. Now, 'the idea [is] that any Marine, using a precision weapon, can kill somebody who needs killing at ranges up to 500 meters.' 'You think about that, and that's still important, right, being able to achieve combat overmatch at that echelon,' he added. 'But now, if you use technology, that same Marine can be just as lethal at ranges out to 15 to 20 kilometers and beyond.' 'And one of the initiatives we partnered on here is this Marine Corps Attack Drone Team,' the TECOM commander continued. 'It started down at Quantico, with the partnership between [the] Marine Corps Warfighting Lab[oratory] and [the] Weapons Training Battalion, and they are using FPV drones, first-person-view drones. And they are paving the way for some of the policy, technology, and fiscal challenges into how we bring these in, at scale, and we turn a rifleman into somebody who cannot just kill an adversary with a precision weapon at 500 meters, but can do it out at 15 to 20 kilometers.' The Corps first announced the establishment of the experimental Marine Corps Attack Drone Team (MCADT) at the service's base in Quantico, Virginia, earlier this year. 'The creation of MCADT comes in response to the rapid proliferation of armed first-person-view drone technology and tactics observed in modern conflicts, particularly in Eastern Europe. As emerging threats continue to evolve, the Marine Corps is prioritizing the integration of FPV drone capabilities to enhance lethality and operational effectiveness across the Fleet Marine Force,' according to a press release the Marine Corps put out in March. 'MCADT's impact extends beyond competition. FPV drones offer squad-level lethality up to 20 kilometers for under $5,000, compared to more expensive weapons systems with less capability. This provides a cost-effective and scalable solution for modern combat.' Per the release, MCADT has three main tasks: 'Develop and refine armed FPV drone training for Marines across the Total Force.' 'Inform service-level requirements to ensure the rapid fielding of cutting-edge FPV technologies.' 'Enhance individual and unit lethality through hands-on instruction during competitive training events.' As alluded to in the March press release, FPV kamikaze drones, as well as ones capable of dropping small munitions on their targets, are in widespread use on both sides of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has helped popularize their increased use globally by both nation-state armed forces and non-state actors. It is important to note, as TWZ regularly does, that the threats posed by weaponized uncrewed aerial systems, including small modified commercial designs, far predates the war in Ukraine. Reposting this video showing a Russian T-80BVM tank with a roof screen and deploying smoke surviving multiple FPV hits and — Rob Lee (@RALee85) December 13, 2023 A Ukrainian drone from the 79th Air Assault Brigade drops a 40mm HEDP grenade on a Russian UR-77 Meteorit, causing a catastrophic payload explosion. — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) August 14, 2023 FPV drones are not the only kinds of precision munitions individual Marines, or at least very small Marine units, can expect to be armed with in the near future. 'Things like Organic Precision Fires [OPF], loitering munitions, one-way-attack drones,' are key modernization priorities for the Corps, Marine Lt. Gen. Eric Austin, head of Marine Corps Forces Command, also said during yesterday's panel discussion. The Marine Corps is currently in the process of acquiring multiple tiers of loitering munitions through its OPF effort, including types that individual Marines can employ and larger designs fired from ground vehicles and small watercraft. Teledyne FLIR Defense's Rogue 1, seen in the video below, is one of the loitering munitions the Marine Corps is acquiring now. 'If you think about the old movies, videos of people in combat, Marines, soldiers, in combat, they carried a hand grenade or two on their vest, right, that they could throw as far as they could throw it, as accurately as they could throw it,' Marine Maj. Gen. Jason Woodworth, another one of the panelists, said. 'Now we're getting to a point where they're going to be able to carry a guided hand grenade, throw it up in the air with loiter capability, and somebody behind them is going to be able to guide that to everyone in this room. So everyone in this room has a hand grenade that is guidable onto the four of us up here, right?' Woodworth, who is currently head of Marine Corps Installations Command and Assistant Deputy Commandant, Installations & Logistics (Facilities), pointed out that Marines are facing down the prospect of opponents with the same kinds of capabilities and will need to be able to defend themselves. The Marine Corps is actively working to acquire an array of counter-drone capabilities to protect installations and units abroad and at home. Efforts similar to the MCADT aimed at expanding the use of FPVs and other kinds of weaponized drones, particularly among smaller combat units, are also now emerging elsewhere across the U.S. military, including within the U.S. special operations community. Other branches of America's armed forces are also working to acquire large numbers of loitering munitions, as well. Collectively, this work continues to highlight how the U.S. military is still very much playing catch-up when it comes to broader fielding of uncrewed capabilities, as well as the means to defend against, even while acknowledging growing global trends. Depending on how the Marine Corps' modernization efforts proceed now, it may be long before the service's 'every Marine a rifleman' addage also evolves. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Yahoo
Marine Corps introduces drone attack team
The U.S. Marine Corps is spearheading a new drone attack team in response to the proliferation of unmanned aerial combat internationally, according to the service. The commanding general of training command, Maj. Gen. Anthony M. Henderson, along with the commanding general of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Brig. Gen. Simon M. Doran, established the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team, or MCADT, on Jan. 3. The team will focus on integrating first-person view drones — aerial vehicles that transmit a live feed of their bird's-eye view to remote displays — into the Fleet Marine Force. 'Today's battlefield is changing rapidly, and we must adapt just as quickly. The Marine Corps Attack Drone Team will ensure that our warfighters remain at the forefront of precision drone employment, providing a critical advantage in future conflicts,' said Maj. Alejandro Tavizon, the Weapons Training Battalion Headquarters Company commander and officer in charge of MCADT. The team, based at Weapons Training Battalion at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, is set to 'develop and refine' armed first-person view drone training, speed up the timeline for the technology's fielding and provide instruction through live training events. MCADT will soon make its competition debut at the U.S. National Drone Association's Military Drone Crucible Championship, which will take place from June 30 to July 3 in Florida. The team will compete against the 75th Ranger Regiment, among other units, by completing tactical missions that simulate combat. Ukraine claims to have fielded a drone-killing laser weapon The Marine Corps is particularly focused on the financial implications of drones. In a statement, the service noted the technology offered a range of up to 20 kilometers for under $5,000, a metric it says is more cost-effective than other costly weapons systems. 'Right now, our focus is on rapidly building proficiency by sending Marines to a variety of training courses and increasing hands-on familiarization,' Tavizon said. 'Our goal is to ensure they can not only operate these systems effectively but also integrate them seamlessly into a team. This means mastering primary platforms, having redundancy with backup systems, and getting the necessary repetitions to employ payloads with precision under real-world conditions.' Ukraine and Russia have employed the use of drones in their years-long war. Most recently, Russia launched 109 drones in a recent attack, according to The Kyiv Independent. Yemen Houthi rebels — a militant group the U.S. has ramped up attacks against recently — have also relied on drone warfare to wreak havoc against vessels in the Red Sea.
