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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
04-04-2025
- Yahoo
Marine Corps stands up ‘attack drone team' to take lessons from Ukraine and teach them to grunts
The Marine Corps has established an attack drone team as part of an effort to make sure rifle squads have the technology and tactics to find and destroy enemies up to 20 kilometers away, said Col. Scott Cuomo, head of Weapons Training Battalion, Quantico. Much like the Marine Corps Shooting Team played a key role in the Corps' rollout of the M27 Infantry Assault Rifle, the attack drone team will be instrumental in efforts to adopt first-person view drones, or FPVs, Cuomo told Task & Purpose. 'The attack drone team now has a mission to become the experts at this,' Cuomo said. 'Someone has got to be the best in any organization and then have the best knowledge to teach it.' The Marine Corps' decision to stand up the attack drone team comes as the entire U.S. military is gleaning lessons from Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, which have shown how much power drones have to shape modern battlefields. The Army announced last year that it was making changes to basic training so that soldiers learn how to conceal themselves from enemy drones. The attack drone team is working on developing the tactics, techniques, and procedures for using FPVs, Cuomo said. 'How do you train a Marine that way?' Cuomo said. 'What are the tasks? What are the conditions, the environments that you're training that Marine in? What are the standards that they have to meet? So that's all what we're working through right now every single day. As we're speaking, Marines are working through that.' Starting in fiscal year 2026, the attack drone team will take part in Marine Corps Marksmanship Competitions to teach other Marines new ways to use FPVs, said Maj. Hector Infante, a spokesperson for Training and Education Command. The attack drone team will also take part in U.S. and international competitions involving small drones and FPVs and share what they learn with the rest of the Corps, Infante told Task & Purpose. All the Marines who are part of the attack drone team are volunteers, with some coming from the Weapons Training Battalion, Infante said. Additional Marines will be able to join the team with the start of the fiscal year 2026 Marine Corps Marksmanship Competition season. Marine Corps officials have yet to determine if the attack drone team will be involved in helping to field FPVs to Marine units, Infante said. The U.S. military needs to make sure that troops at the lowest tactical level are equipped with drones for offensive operations, said retired Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., who led U.S. Central Command from 2019 to 2022. 'Drones. cheap drones, you can fly 10 of them in a day if you have to — what they do is, they provide SA [situational awareness] around you — you can see where you're going — and then you need drones that will provide lethal effects,' McKenzie told Task & Purpose. At the same time, the military needs to continuously improve its counter drone defenses because the technology for unmanned aerial systems is advancing rapidly, McKenzie said. 'We've got to look day-to-day at what is happening in Ukraine in order to bring those lessons back to the United States,' McKenzie said. Those 'Hegseth bodyguards' are actually there for the Air Force's 'Doomsday' plane Army wants junior officers to fix quality-of-life issues that drive soldiers out '100% OPSEC' apparently means texting military plans to a reporter Ranger School's new fitness test is tougher than ever, but nixes sit-ups This photo of Air Force special ops pool training is chaos. There's a reason for that.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Yahoo
US Marines have a new 'attack drone team' that's taking lessons straight out of the war in Ukraine
The Marine Corps launched a new competitive drone team to enhance future warfare prep. The team aims to integrate advanced drone tactics inspired largely by the war in Ukraine. The initiative reflects a shift in military strategy, focusing on cost-effective drone systems. The Marine Corps is known for its famous shooting and drill teams. Now, the service is adding a new competitive, precision weapons team to its ranks — a drone team. "Today's battlefield is changing rapidly, and we must adapt just as quickly," said Maj. Alejandro Tavizon, headquarters company commander at Weapons Training Battalion. Tavizon will oversee the newly created Marine Corps Attack Drone Team, a leading part of the service's efforts to catch up with advancements in drone warfare overseas, a Marine Corps statement said. "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," he said. "By leveraging emerging technologies and refining drone employment tactics, we are ensuring that Marines remain agile, adaptive, and lethal in the modern battlespace," Tavizon added. This effort isn't coming out of the blue, and arrives as modern combat is increasingly defined by unmanned weapon systems. The Marine Corps said that "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," a clear reference to the Ukraine war where uncrewed combat is prolific. The new drone team will be based with the service's Warfighting Laboratory and Weapons Training Battalion, with design based rooted in the Corps' competitive shooting team, a group that has long guided training development for the rest of the force. That the service has chosen to house its couple warfare efforts with its prestigious shooting team may highlight just how seriously it's taking drone warfare. The Corps considers the rifle to be the bedrock weapon for all Marines regardless of their job, part of the service's "every Marine a rifleman" mentality. Housing the drone team with the Weapons Training Battalion, the Corps' ultimate repository of small arms knowledge, could signal how drastically the service is trying to shift to the future. "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." The Corps explained that it's using different small drone systems to facilitate "precision strikes up to 20 kilometers for under $5,000 —offering a more cost-effective and capable alternative to traditional weapons systems." The team is set to represent the Corps in drone competitions around the world, with its first competition slated for this summer at the National Drone Association's Military Drone Crucible Championship, a competition meant to simulate drone usage in modern combat. "MCADT will execute tactical missions using FPVs and small UAS in realistic scenarios designed to simulate modern combat," the Corps said, referring to the kind of first-person-view drones and uncrewed aerial systems that have been used extensively in Ukraine. The new attack team will also be responsible for integrating key lessons learned from drone warfare overseas. The drone team's establishment comes as the US military continues to tackle important problems. First, the Pentagon is figuring out how to quickly procure rapidly changing technology, like drones, which is a significant change from the notoriously cumbersome military-industrial complex that ballooned throughout the Global War on Terror. Second, the services are trying to apply lessons learned from relevant conflicts overseas, such as the war in Ukraine, to help shape plans for future warfare. Ukraine continues to serve as a sort of test bed for drone experimentation that militaries across the globe are watching closely. Ukrainian and Russian forces are grappling with terrifying advancements, including drones with mounted shotguns, others that release molten thermite to pour over enemy positions, and drones piloted with AI assistance to boost strike accuracy. Pacific nations are also taking note of Ukrainian developments— a Taiwan company recently announced the creation of a new "sea drone" designed to fire small torpedoes or ram into targets inspired by Ukrainian attacks on Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Read the original article on Business Insider
