MCRIG is assigned under Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California. It will serve as the Marine Corps’ focal point for unmanned systems training integration, curriculum development and education.
The organization is intended to turn emerging drone capabilities into standardized programs of instruction, instructor certifications and enduring training products. Those products are designed to be delivered consistently across the Marine Corps.
“The battlefield continues to demonstrate that small unmanned aircraft systems are no longer niche capabilities; they are indispensable tools for reconnaissance, precision strike, force protection and survivability,” said Maj. Gen. Mark H. Clingan, commanding general, MAGTFTC, MCAGCC. “The Marine Corps Robotics Integration Group provides the institutional framework necessary to rapidly integrate validated capabilities into standardized training, ensuring Marines across the Total Force are prepared to employ and defeat these systems in future conflicts.”
The Marine Corps said the establishment of MCRIG reflects its continued effort to adapt to the changing character of warfare. It said inexpensive, commercially available unmanned aircraft have changed how modern militaries detect, target, maneuver and fight.
MCRIG will receive validated capability packages from specialized organizations responsible for experimentation and operational assessment. These packages include tactics, techniques and procedures, pilot courses and training requirements.
Once capabilities are validated, MCRIG will develop curriculum, training support packages and certification standards. The organization will then distribute them through designated regional hubs that conduct standardized instruction across the Fleet Marine Force.
Two organizations will support this process: the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team and the Marine Corps Counter Drone Team. The Marine Corps said the two teams provide complementary roles in studying the employment and defeat of unmanned systems.
“The Marine Corps Attack Drone Team and the Marine Corps Counter Drone Team are designed to move at the speed of technology. Through the analysis of exercises, operations, and purposely designed events we gain critical information about how systems should be employed or defeated,” said Col. Charles Anklam III, commanding officer, Weapons Training Battalion.
“Our responsibility is to rigorously test ideas, validate capabilities, and rapidly transition those findings to MCRIG, where they become standardized training that benefits every Marine. This partnership allows us to remain agile to the constantly changing threat, innovate quickly, and provide the fleet with consistently reliable, credible, and operationally relevant information to increase lethality and survivability.”
The Marine Corps established the Marine Corps Counter Drone Team to accelerate counter-drone training development. The service said the team will support this mission in the same way the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team has advanced attack drone capability development, experimentation, research, testing and evaluation.
MCCDT is an organic element of Weapons Training Battalion at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. It is not designed to deploy as an operational force provider, but to identify threats, test emerging solutions, validate practical tactics and transition findings to MCRIG for service-wide implementation.
The counter-drone team will integrate lessons from Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, MAGTFTC, MCRIG, government partners, industry and the Fleet Marine Force. The Marine Corps said this approach is intended to keep counter-drone tactics and training operationally relevant.
Using established Marine Corps guidance and approved training standards as its baseline, MCCDT will conduct operational assessments and force-on-force evaluations. Validated recommendations will be provided to MCRIG for incorporation into institutional doctrine, curriculum, instructor certifications and standardized training products.
The Marine Corps described the relationship between MCADT, MCCDT and MCRIG as a disciplined innovation pathway. MCADT and MCCDT will support experimentation, assessment and validation of tactics against emerging unmanned systems challenges, while MCRIG will turn those lessons into consistent and repeatable training.
Designated TECOM regional hubs will carry out MCRIG-approved courses across the Marine Corps. The hubs will also return operational observations and lessons learned to support continuous improvement of curriculum and tactics.
The Marine Corps said the integrated training enterprise provides a sustainable framework that can adapt as unmanned technologies evolve. It said the model is intended to ensure Marines receive standardized, current and operationally relevant instruction regardless of where they train.
The service is also seeking motivated, technically proficient and innovative Marines to help build the emerging capability. Marines interested in select counter-small unmanned aircraft systems billets within MCRIG are encouraged to review MARADMIN 307/26 for eligibility requirements and application procedures.
The Marine Corps said the establishment of MCRIG and MCCDT is another milestone in its broader modernization efforts. It said the organizations are intended to help Marines employ and counter rapidly evolving unmanned systems while preserving agility, lethality and survivability on future battlefields.
