The Marine Corps Is Redesigning Infantry Battalions for the Future
Recommendations for a nimbler unit organization with fewer grunts and more tech will go to the commandant next year.
Caitlin M. Kenney | June 23, 2021
The Marine Corps is honing its plans for smaller, tech-heavy infantry battalions through two years of experimentation intended to reveal the best mix of people and capabilities for the distributed operations of the future.
“Nothing of this scale has been attempted in, certainly, decades,” said Brig. Gen. Benjamin Watson, the commanding general of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory/Futures Directorate and the vice chief of the Office of Naval Research.
Dubbed Infantry Battalion Experiment Campaign Plan, or IBX30, the three-battalion effort is part of the Corps’ push to reorganize for conflicts with near-peer adversaries by 2030, which the current defense strategy says will require spreading forces across larger battlespaces while fending off new technologies like drones and cyber attacks.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2021/06/marine-corps-experimenting-less-grunts-and-more-tech-future-infantry-battalions/174891/
