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20 February 2026

Every Marine a Rifleman and Now, A Drone Operator

Laura Heckmann

The Marine Corps recently launched a new training program focused on turning hundreds of Marines into small drone operators.

At the Marine Corps Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, a foundational philosophy is that every Marine is first and foremost a rifleman, said Col. Scott Cuomo, commanding officer of Training Command’s Weapons Training Battalion.

“So, we started there to make sure that they understood how to integrate” the training — and make every Marine a drone operator.

The program — a framework established by Training and Education Command consisting of six pilot courses and eight certifications — is meant to address a critical need for standardized training, particularly with first-person view attack drones.

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