US Marine Corps aims to make drones as commonplace as rifles on the battlefield
A US marine operates a Neros Archer drone. (Photo: US Marine Corps)
The USMC is transforming drones into standard equipment through major funding increases, standardised training, new doctrine and rapid battlefield adaptation, with nearly $820 million requested for UAS programmes in FY2027.
The US Marine Corps (USMC) has been increasingly embracing the use of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), deepening implementation to embed drones as a routine combat system rather than a niche technology across the Fleet Marine Force.
“Our goal is to make drones just like a rifle, a mortar, a machine gun”, Col H Parker Consaul, director of Marine Corps Robotics Integration Group (MCRIG), claimed in a recent press conference. “It is just another weapon system, another capability that our units have to employ.”
In order to expand UAS integration into combined-arms operations, the branch has been working on multiple lines of
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