MARINE CORPS READY TO BRING THE STING TO ENEMY AIRCRAFT, DRONES
December 7, 2022 ·Carl Prine
When Maj. Crispus M. Kimani commissioned into the Marine Corps a decade ago, his service was still waging twin counterinsurgency wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Low Altitude Air Defense officers were facing guerrilla foes with no air forces, and the Corps didn’t consider killing enemy jets, helicopters, and aerial drones its top mission.
The Corps deactivated 1st Stinger Battery in Okinawa, divested its Avenger weapons system, and stalled the Light Armored Vehicle-Air Defense Program, while dragooning LAAD Marines to become riflemen supporting US forces overseas.
“Essentially, we were doing air base ground security, security at airfields, doing patrols, just standard provisional infantry stuff tailored to OEF,” the operations officer at 3rd LAAD Battalion in California told Coffee or Die Magazine.
https://www.coffeeordie.com/marine-corps-low-altitude-air-defense
