Marine Corps training schools are now familiarising Marines and small-unit leaders with the handling and tactical use of small drones. One training course run by the 1st Marine Division’s schoolhouse is building basic skills and tactical savvy that infantry forces will need using their drones against multiple threats in a ground fight. The Small UAS and Counter-SUAS Integration Course at Camp Pendleton focuses both on employing their unit’s portable Class 1 drones – including those bearing munitions – in the offensive attack and in neutralising enemy systems that could jam electronic signals, attack or surveil Marines’ positions.
The course teaches them how these systems, including counter-UAS or attack drones, and “first-person view” goggles or monitor systems, can support their units’ existing arsenal. By the end of this year, we’re going to have all kinds of tools for encountering small drones. What the students get here is a chance to get their hands on some of that equipment before it gets fielded,” said Lt. Col. Nick Freeman, Division Schools director and former infantry battalion commander. “We have it in small numbers, and then it’s going to expand by the end of this year.”
“By the end of this year, we are going to have thousands of small drones across all the operational units, and what’s great is that they don’t cost that much,” Freeman said. “We will be increasing the number of students here in this course, and we will be training them to fly these in much greater numbers.” About 400 students will do the SUAS/CSUAS Integration Course, which runs 10 training days, over six classes scheduled for 2025. The latest class ran June 2-13, and the next one begins July 21.
Through the course, students can get familiar with systems that might not yet be fully integrated into formal programs of instruction at operational units or formal schools. “This is the new model we’re constantly updating based off of where specific technology – but more importantly the techniques and tactics to integrate that technology – are going,” Freeman said. The instruction isn’t just about the drones and counter-drone systems but “how to integrate it with everything else and incorporate it into your overall tactical plan,” he said. By doing so, “they are not depending overly on any one piece of tech but are learning how to fight against an adaptive enemy.”
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