Video: Marines Carry Out Their First Boat-to-Boat Drone Strike
Much like Ukraine's front-line units, U.S. Marine Corps specialists are learning to build and deploy their own attack drones with available technology, innovating new ways to deliver effects in the maritime environment. At a recent exercise in Okinawa, a team of Marines set up their own drone boat craft, then used it as a target in the service's first live fire boat-to-boat drone strike.
In March, Marines from III Expeditionary Operations Training Group and operators from U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command used an armed drone to hit an unmanned target boat, which the Marines had designed and built themselves earlier in the month. They also demonstrated the ability to launch attack drones directly from self-built robotic boats, which could extend the reach of USMC strike teams based on shore.
The Marine Corps wants to contribute to the Pentagon's defense-of-Taiwan planning, and is restructuring to make ready for an island-hopping campaign in the First Island Chain - a dangerous place to operate during a war with China, which has abundant capabilities for striking at sea and on land in its near abroad. Unmanned concepts that have been trialed in the Black Sea - like a drone-launching drone boat - could reduce marines' exposure.
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Marines in III MEF's training program are learning to build drones and drone payloads, skills that would allow them to source parts locally and assemble systems in the field — much as Ukrainian troops have done along the front lines in the Donbas. III MEF's training group is also working on defenses against the same kinds of unmanned threats.
The overall objective, according to branch officer Maj. Brant Wayson, is to equip a Marine platoon with enough drone firepower to defeat an amphibious assault - and give them the engineering skills to build and maintain that capability on their own, in the field. Wayson also wants to see Marines thinking up new ways to create problems for the enemy. "We can create leave-behind sensors, build mesh networks, or develop unique systems across sea, air or land to deliver payloads," he says.
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