The US Marine Corps is shifting its focus to being prepared for near-peer adversary fights.
US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Malia Sparks
Evolving drone and missile threats, from Europe to the Middle East, are pushing the Marine Corps to move faster on critical air-defense programs, a top Marine general said last week.The Marine Corps is investing in new air-defense systems, including the Marine Air Defense Integrated System, but Lt. Gen. Eric Austin, the Corps' deputy commandant for combat development and integration and senior ground-acquisition official, said the pace of battlefield change means the service needs to move faster to keep up with emerging threats.Austin shared his thoughts during a discussion on Marine Corps modernization efforts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a DC-based think tank."We're on a path for our 2030 vision, but guess what, it's not fast enough," he said of the service's efforts to reform its air defense systems as the entire military overhauls its capabilities after 20 years of the Global War on Terror. "We've got to field faster, and we have to get these out at scale."
Marine air defense platforms need to be easily connected to other services' systems and capable of being updated with open architecture.
