Compass Points - Attack Drones

Marine Corps Attack Drone Team

Compass Points - Attack Drones

Marine Corps Attack Drone Team

June 7, 2025

.

Now hear this, grab your gear and prepare for competition. There are only three weeks to have everything ready.

The Marine Corps Attack Drone Team, MCADT, will participate in the first US Military Drone Crucible Championship hosted by the United States National Drone Association (USNDA) from 30 June 2025 to 3 July 2025 in Florida, where the Marines will battle against other US military units. The Drone Crucible Championship will consist of tactical inserts and mission parameters designed to utilize the “hunter-killer method” of employing both sUAS and FPVs. The MCADT was established at Quantico in January 2025 to respond to the rapid proliferation of armed first-person view (FPV) drone technology and tactics.

The USNDA created the Drone Crucible Championship as a way to assist national security units in developing drone skills.

.

---------------------

---------------------

.

MISSION

​Rapidly Enhance the Nation's Effort to Man, Train, and Equip Service Members and Organizations in National Defense, Security, and Safety with Tactics, Techniques, Procedures, Technologies, and Policies to Compete and Win in the Clear and Present Drone Era.

-- US National Drone Association

.

---------------------

---------------------

.

The Marine needs a few good drone operators and needs them today. The purpose of the MCADT is not just to participate in competitions, but to spread lessons learned throughout the Marine Corps by hosting drone competitions inside the Marine Corps.

.

---------------------

---------------------

.

MCADT

Mission. Through aggressive training and experimentation and by representing the Marine Corps in inter-service, national, and international competitions, the MCADT will rapidly accelerate armed FPV drone lessons learned from modern combat to increase our Corps’ warfighting advantage. The MCADT will provide regular input to Service-level requirements and deliver intermediate and advanced armed FPV drone skills to the Total Force via the CIAP to increase individual and unit lethality.

. . . The MCADT will host regional competition events in FY26 in conjunction with the Marine Corps Shooting Team and the CIAP. These events will provide the opportunity to share lessons learned in armed FPV tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) to FMF units to maximize lethality and capabilities with these new systems.

-- Marines.mil

.

---------------------

---------------------

.

The Marine Corps Attack Team and more importantly the broader Marine Corps is going to need to educate and train drone operators and the squads and platoons around them to be able to function and prevail on a chaotic battlefield under swarms of drones. Marine units will have to be broadly dispersed, which means junior Marines must understand both their own mission and the higher mission and be able to take the initiative as required. How will Marines be prepared to win on the chaotic, drone intensive, battlefield? Marines will need education, not only on how to fly and maintain a drone, Marines need education on how to win on a chaotic, unpredictable battlefield. Drone operators need to begin at the beginning and study the nature, theory, and conduct of warfighting.

.

---------------------

---------------------

.

The Nature of War

The essence of war is a violent struggle between two hostile, independent, and irreconcilable wills, each trying to impose itself on the other . . . . War is thus a process of continuous mutual adaptation, of give and take, move and counter move. It is critical to keep in mind that the enemy is not an inanimate object to be acted upon but an independent and animate force with its own objectives and plans.

.

The Theory of War

All actions in war, regardless of the level, are based upon either taking the initiative or reacting in response to the opponent. By taking the initiative, we dictate the terms of the conflict and force the enemy to meet us on our terms. The initiative allows us to pursue some positive aim even if only to preempt an enemy initiative. It is through the initiative that we seek to impose our will on the enemy. The initiative is clearly the preferred form of action because only through the initiative can we ultimately impose our will on the enemy.

. . . In all cases, the commander must be prepared to react to the unexpected and to exploit opportunities created by conditions which develop from the initial action . . . . By exploiting opportunities, we create in increasing numbers more opportunities for exploitation. It is often the ability and the willingness to ruthlessly exploit these opportunities that generate decisive results. The ability to take advantage of opportunity is a function of speed, flexibility, boldness, and initiative.

.

Preparing for War

The Marine Corps’ style of warfare requires intelligent leaders with a penchant for boldness and initiative down to the lowest levels. Boldness is an essential moral trait in a leader for it generates combat power beyond the physical means at hand. Initiative, the willingness to act on one’s own judgment, is a prerequisite for boldness.

.

The Conduct of War

The Marine Corps concept for winning under these conditions is a warfighting doctrine based on rapid, flexible, and opportunistic maneuver. In order to fully appreciate what we mean by maneuver, we need to clarify the term. The traditional understanding of maneuver is a spatial one; that is, we maneuver in space to gain a positional advantage.4 However, in order to maximize the usefulness of maneuver, we must consider maneuver in other dimensions as well. The essence of maneuver is taking action to generate and exploit some kind of advantage over the enemy as a means of accomplishing our objectives as effectively as possible. That advantage may be psychological, technological, or temporal as well as spatial. Especially important is maneuver in time—we generate a faster operating tempo than the enemy to gain a temporal advantage. It is through maneuver in all dimensions that an inferior force can achieve decisive superiority at the necessary time and place.

-- MCDP -1 Warfighting

.

---------------------

---------------------

.

The Marine Corps' foundational maneuver warfare philosophy described in MCDP-1 Warfighting, gives Marines answers to the chaotic, dispersed, and drone intensive battlefield. Drones are a powerful new technology with impacts on the battlefield still growing. But the Marine Corps has a built in advantage when facing the chaos drones bring to the battlefield. The Marine Corps is designed to conduct offensive operations on chaotic battlefields in any clime and place.

The global Marine MAGTF on amphibious ships comes not only with it own ground, air, and logistics, it comes with Marine warriors steeped in a warfighting philosophy that is based on mission tactics, high initiative, and distributed operations. The more chaotic the battlefield, the better Marines perform. Marines use a combined arms focus on offensive fires, offensive maneuver, and offensive info ops to prevail in any situation. New drones are not the secret to Marines winning on the modern battlefield. Drones are simply one more new technology being incorporated to enhance and upgrade the combined arms power of Marines. The real secret of Marines is a warfighting ethos and philosophy that can never be equaled.

The Marine Corps Attack Drone Team is well named because it is the nature of Marines to be in the attack. The Marine Corps of the future is not a sit and sense force, not a regional force, and not just another node in a joint kill chain. Marines are special and Marines must be special. While the Navy, Army, and Air Force will always exist, the Marine Corps must continually fight for its existence. The Marine Corps risks its very existence when it becomes indistinguishable from the other services. The MCADT is helping to keep the entire Marine Corps always in the attack.

Now hear this, grab your gear and prepare for a new attack drone competition. Some of the drone attacks will be in friendly competitions, but some will be in operations. Get ready today.

.

- - - - -

.

Marines.mil

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE MARINE CORPS ATTACK DRONE COMPETITION PROGRAM

Date Signed: 5/22/2025 | MARADMINS Number: 236/25

https://www.marines.mil/News/Messages/Messages-Display/Article/4193029/announcement-of-the-marine-corps-attack-drone-competition-program/

.

- - - - -

.

USNDA

The Official Website of the U.S. National Drone Association™

Innovation for the Security of the Nation

https://www.usnda.org/