More Than a Rifle, Marines Will Need Technology in Future Wars: General

“Every Marine a rifleman” has been a cornerstone for the Corps for decades, but war is changing.

Marines in future wars might find themselves needing to be just as well-versed in drone warfare as they are with their rifles, said a Marine general on Tuesday at the Sea Air and Space symposium, an annual military and industry gathering.

A deeply ingrained institutional belief for all Marines is “every Marine a rifleman,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, who serves as the commanding general of Training and Education Command, the entity that oversees Marine preparation for future warfare.

This well-known mantra refers to the idea that every Marine should possess a baseline level of combat skill and a warfighter mentality regardless of whether they serve as an infantryman or as an administrative specialist. The idea is that any Marine, no matter their role, can pick up a rifle and be effective in war.

But a growing number of Marines in the future could see their reliance on the rifle as supplementary to tech like drones.

“Now, if you use technology, you know that same Marine can be just as lethal at ranges out to 15, 20, kilometers and beyond,” he said.

New tech and changing warfare

The general’s comments at the symposium this week come on the heels of a new effort from the Corps to build up its offensive small-UAS capabilities with a nascent “Attack Drone Team,” which will focus on absorbing lessons learned from drone warfare in Ukraine and implementing training efforts for the rest of the force.

Being able to shoot a target from 500 meters away will still be important for Marines, Watson added, alluding to the approximate maximum effective range against small targets for the M16 and M4 rifles Marines are issued.

But new types of warfare will challenge concepts from the Corps’ past combat experience. Troops will have to envision a future without more recent guarantees, like the “golden hour” for lifesaving medical care and air superiority.

New technologies and new threats are changing the battlespace in big ways. “It’s not all that much of a stretch to say we will never again fight without what we have traditionally known as air superiority, at least not persistently,” Watson said, referring to the airpower assurance that was nearly ubiquitous for American troops throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Watson also highlighted another idea that other top Marine leaders have been espousing amid concerns of constant surveillance — focusing on individual and unit signature management.

“There’s been a lot of grassroots efforts at the Marine Division-level going on into signature management,” he said.

These include efforts to train Marines on physical signature management, like new types of camouflage netting and heat control. But Marines will also have to grapple with how they might appear to an enemy on the electromagnetic spectrum and how they can survive while fighting within it.

Last month, for instance, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith appeared in a cautionary video on X warning Marines about the dangers of relying on their cellphones near combat zones.

Readily available, user-friendly tech that can detect the presence of cellphones, thus exposing a unit to enemy fire, has grown increasingly common. And so too are other uncrewed systems and new forms of electronic warfare.

Previous generations of warfighters might have gone into battle with one or two grenades strapped onto their vests, Watson said. “Now we’re getting to a point where they’re going to be able to carry a guided hand grenade, throw it up in the air with loiter capability, and something behind them is going to be able to guide that,” he said.

“Think about how you would have to defend against that as we change our tactics,” the general said.

Technological solutions might be helpful, but Watson cautioned that the latest tech won’t solve all problems. Classic battlefield fundamentals applied to contemporary warfare — known as “tactics, techniques, procedures” — will.

But even with such an approach, more troops will have to face an unprecedented shift in mindset. “The first thing is getting everybody’s head in the right space,” Watson said, “which is the idea that you’re being watched all the time.”