Previous guidance on personal portable electronic devices — a category that includes cellphones, laptops, tablets, smart watches, portable gaming systems, digital cameras and Bluetooth headphones — had given unit commanders more leeway to set their own policies. But a Marine Corps order dated March 26, signed by Commandant Gen. Eric Smith, tightens the service-wide rules about the devices, citing a host of risks the technology can cause.

The order comes as part of a broader effort by the Marine Corps to rein in Marines’ use of personal electronic devices at work.

Personal portable electronic device use “can reduce situational awareness, compromise privacy, and threaten operations security,” the order states.

The order tells commanders to issue unit-specific policies that align with the Marine Corps’ new restrictions.

Under the new rules, Marines conducting training exercises in the field “should not” carry personal devices. Commanders may authorize “limited” use of the devices in the areas where Marines have set up their temporary camps.

Marines who are standing armed duty can’t carry personal devices, the order states. Nor can Marines carry them during “high-risk training events” — such as live-fire training, water survival training, obstacle courses or rappel training — regardless of whether they are receiving or administering the training.

Operators and crew members of government-owned vehicles and equipment are barred from device use “that creates unreasonable risks to mission or good order and discipline while operating such vehicle/equipment.”

Personal devices are prohibited from areas “actively involved with Marine Corps aviation operations,” meaning hangars, flightlines, aircraft maintenance spaces, briefing areas and aircraft.

The ban on device use during aviation operations comes with some exceptions. Aircraft passengers who aren’t members of the crew may use their devices with approval from the aircraft commander. Aircrew members who don’t have government-issued devices may carry powered-off personal devices as a last-resort form of communication for emergencies.

The order allows commanders of battalions or larger organizations to set temporary, situation-dependent exceptions to the rules, but commanders can’t make permanent exceptions based on billet, rank or seniority.

The Marine Corps wants a “cultural shift” in how Marines use devices, according to the order. Leaders are expected to teach their Marines about the risks posed by devices and use tools to monitor device emissions.

When Marines break the new rules, commanders are required to report the violations and deal with them as they see fit.

Yet the order urges a gentle approach to enforcement: “Where applicable, commanders are encouraged to use PPED violations as learning/training opportunities to both educate on the operational risks of PPEDs, while providing Marines the opportunity to learn from their mistakes without derailing their future career.”

The order does not apply to Marines’ official government-issued devices.

The Corps’ previous guidance on personal devices, a 2016 white letter from then-Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, had restricted device use during live-fire training, swim training, and vehicle and aircraft operations but otherwise had left it up to commanders to make their own rules.

No texting for official business

The order from March is the second time in recent months the Corps has restricted Marines’ use of personal devices.

The service announced in a Marine administrative message in December 2023 and reiterated in a Marine Corps bulletin in February that Marines had to use their Microsoft Teams accounts or government emails for official business. That means Marines aren’t allowed to transmit official information via text, even on their government-issued devices.

When Marines “inadvertently” do business on their personal devices, they must screenshot the content and send it to their own government email accounts with the subject line “Official Record of Text Messages,” the bulletin states.

Official business includes “Any contact with a media outlet by any member of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) acting in an official capacity,” according to the bulletin.

In February, Marine Corps Times asked the office of Deputy Commandant for Information Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy if that meant Marine public affairs officers providing information on background or junior Marines discussing the dire conditions of their barracks would have to disclose their communications with journalists to records officials.

More than a month after receiving that query, Capt. Karen Jensen, a spokeswoman for the office, responded via email, “Unfortunately, I cannot speculate on the various ways records could be created in the future. Marines are expected to abide by policy regarding records retention in all cases.”

“Records serve as evidence and documentation of an agency’s operations, decisions, policies, procedures, functions, and other activities and will be maintained in accordance with guidance issued by the National Archives and Records Administration,” Jensen said in the emailed statement. “The Marine Corps is committed to upholding these standards.”

‘You will be attacked’

Since many of the younger Marines in the force have grown up with smartphones, it is a challenge to limit use of the devices, Marine leaders have said in recent years.

In 2016, Neller recounted a training exercise in which the electromagnetic signature from Marines’ personal cellphones made it easy to identify the location of a particular area in the headquarters, CNN reported. He cautioned Marines to leave their devices behind before going to the field: “Because if you can be seen, you will be attacked.”

In 2022, then-Commandant Gen. David Berger said one lesson from Russia’s war in Ukraine is personal cellphones can get troops tracked — and killed.

“Every time you press a button, you’re emitting,” Berger said. “Every Marine, every soldier, every sailor grows up with these now. They don’t think anything about pressing a button — this is what they do all day long.”

The Army, meanwhile, has partially embraced the use of personal cellphones. Approximately 20,000 soldiers and Army civilians were approved for a bring-your-own-device initiative in 2023 that allows users to conduct official business from their personal phones through a secure cloud-based app, C4ISRNET previously reported.

Lt. Gen. John Morrison, a top Army cyber official, said in August 2023 the process was “very, very, very secure.”

“It’s more efficient, more effective, and, quite frankly, if you want to reach me on the weekend, call me on my personal device,” he said.

The new primary military occupational specialty ― called the command and control interface control officer ― will be responsible for coordinating the use of networks and ensuring insights derived from battlefield data are shared between commanders no matter the domain, according to a Marine administrative message published Tuesday.

To be eligible for the job, listed as the military occupational specialty 7216, enlisted Marines must have expertise in existing and emerging communication practices and technologies. That includes Link 16 ― a secure, jam-resistant network used by NATO.

The Corps specifically wants Marines who also have a background in managing airspace.

The warrant officer job is open to enlisted Marines who hold the military occupational specialties low altitude air defense gunner (7212), tactical air defense controller (7236), air support operations operator (7242), air traffic controller (7257) or senior air traffic controller (7291).

The Corps is establishing the job as part of an effort to update command and control amid the sweeping revamp known as Force Design. The service has expressed interest in adapting the aviation community’s command-and-control approach more broadly.

“Our aviation C2 organizations and tactical employment concepts are well-defined and recognized by the joint force,” the service wrote in a 2022 planning document on Force Design. “We are considering new C2-specific formations using our approach to aviation C2 as a model.”

The new role arrives as the Defense Department pursues what’s known as Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2.

The multibillion-dollar concept envisions an interlinking of land, air, sea, space and cyber forces’ networks, allowing the best-positioned and best-equipped unit to strike first. For now, many of the military’s databases and applications are siloed or service-specific, impeding what defense officials have said are critical exchanges of information.

The proliferation of advanced communications equipment and digital threats prompted the creation of the new warrant officer position, the Marine Corps said.

Once Marines are selected as command and control interface control officers, they must complete the warrant officer basic course and attend the joint interface control officer course, according to the administrative message. More advanced command-and-control and air-operations courses are “recommended” for these warrant officers.

Marines who are interested in the promotion should look out for a future Marine administrative message called “Fiscal Year 2025 Enlisted to Warrant Officer Regular Selection Board MARADMIN,” according to Tuesday’s message.

Maj. Diann Rosenfeld said in her statement Thursday to Marine Corps Times that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was investigating the incident, which occurred over Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz. She declined to provide more information about what kind of drone was involved or how it was disabled, citing the ongoing investigation.

“As a public reminder, drone activity over Guam DoD property is prohibited,” she said in the emailed statement.

The Marine Corps officially opened Camp Blaz in January 2022, in preparation for a future shuffling of some 5,000 Marines from Japan to Guam as part of an agreement between the United States and Japan.

The incident, which Military.com first reported, comes as the Marine Corps is investing in platforms that can strike drones down from the sky.

Marine leadership has said the heavy use of drones in the recent wars in Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine shows the need for the Corps to get these counter-drone capabilities. It has identified the proliferation of cheap drones in particular as one risk to its base infrastructure.

The Marine Corps in December 2023 conducted a successful test of the vehicle-mounted Marine air defense integrated system, shooting down several drones using Stinger missiles and the 30 mm cannon.

The service also has weapons that rely on directed energy to fry drones, including the compact laser weapon system. In July, the Corps announced it was testing an artificial-intelligence-enabled microwave weapon that could take down drone swarms.

Marine Corps Systems Command posted a request for information Friday asking for the industry’s capabilities to provide unmanned surface vessels that can sense at sea.

The request for information says the Corps “is seeking” the vessels, but notes the request doesn’t mean the service is obligated to buy anything.

As part of the Force Design 2030 modernization initiative, the Marine Corps plans to use uncrewed technology for purposes as wide-ranging as communications, logistics and delivering fires.

Another key part of Force Design is revamping Marines’ intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in preparation for a potential fight with a high-tech adversary, particularly the Chinese military.

That’s where these unmanned vessels could come in.

The Corps would like the vessels to have sensors for detecting and recognizing other objects on the water, according to the request for information.

Marines would control the vessels from shore or from elsewhere on the sea, according to the request for information. The vessels would be geared toward a “littoral operating environment,” meaning waters close to land.

They ideally would be light enough to get lugged around by a Marine CH-53 heavy-lift helicopter or light tactical vehicle, and small enough to fit into C-130 transport aircraft.

The request for information calls for “non-developmental solutions,” items that already have been developed and may be in use elsewhere in the government. Vendors should provide information on how long procurement would take, the Marine Corps said.

The request leaves many of the details, including the boats’ size and architecture, up to the vendors.

The Corps also wants information about systems that could enable the vessels, including automated threat detection, mine detection, and autonomous launch and recovery.

Sea service leaders have said they see unmanned vessels playing an important role in future conflict at sea, and the Navy already makes use of them. The Navy envisions a future fleet made up of about 373 manned ships and 150 unmanned vessels, Defense News previously reported.

Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, head of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, said at the Sept. 6 Defense News Conference in Arlington, Virginia, “The idea of loitering munitions coming off unmanned surface vessels, loitering munitions coming out of unmanned underwater vessels — you can let your imagination run wild, and we’re pushing the envelope on all of those.”

Marines with Tactical Training and Exercise Control Group conducted the proof-of-concept test at Twentynine Palms, California ― a vast installation with many ranges where Marines can do live-fire tests and training, according to a Marine Corps news release.

“Instead of having a Marine handle the weapon system, manipulate the safeties, we could put a remote trigger mechanism on it that allowed it to all be done remotely,” 1st Lt. Aaron Safadi, officer in charge of the group’s emerging technology integration section, said in the release. “The Marine could be behind cover and concealment, the weapon system could go forward, and the Marine could manipulate the safeties from a safe place while allowing that weapon system to get closer to its target.”

In a video posted by the Marine Corps of the Sept. 9 test, the goat-ivated Marines watched as a robotic quadruped stood up onto its four haunches of sorts and walked around, making clacking sounds on the ground.

The platform appears to be the Go1 robot dog made by the Chinese robotics company Unitree, whose website advertises the quadruped as “Lightweight, Take It Everywhere.”

Unitree sells a basic version of the man’s bionic best friend for $2,700 (plus $1,000 in shipping) on its website and $4,899 on Amazon.

Marine Corps Times asked the Office of Naval Research about the use of technology by a Chinese company in testing and didn’t immediately receive a response.

The quadruped itself wasn’t the focus of the Marine Corps’ test, Marine spokesman Capt. Johnathon Huizar said in an email Friday to Marine Corps Times. The goat was just a firing platform for a Kairos remote trigger mechanism that was fixed to a M72AS light anti-tank weapon trainer, according to the spokesman, who confirmed that the quadruped was made by Unitree.

“The goat concept came from the fact it was to be used as a pack animal to haul payloads of various forms from point A to point B,” Huizar said.

The goat is equipped with sensors and can stand up and “beg,” one Marine says in the Corps’ video as the creature gets into a kneeling position and clasp its limbs together as if pleading for something.

“It’s creepy,” another Marine appears to say.

Not really disputing that Marine’s observation, the first Marine replies with a laugh, “The bigger one, they actually put a goat-head mask on it.”

It can growl and bark, she said.

Another Marine cuts in to note that this particular robotic goat isn’t a military platform that would be issued to Marines. Rather, he says, it’s a test platform for determining how robots like it could be used.

Soon after, there’s a shot in which the robot sways its hips from side to side as if moving to an invisible rhythm.

One Marine messes with the wildlife by gently kicking the robot goat, but the goat is ready. It remains upright and takes a bunch of quick steps sideways to recover from the blow.

Finally, the Marines attach an M72 light anti-tank weapon to the goat’s back and fire into the desert.

“Nice!” a Marine is heard saying in the video.

The Marine Corps’ test with the goat was conducted in concert with the Office of Naval Research, according to the news release. News of the test was first reported by The War Zone.

Robots have become one focus of the Marine Corps’ modernization initiative, Force Design 2030, aimed at getting the service branch ready for conflict with a great power like China.

“Marines must fight at machine speed or face defeat at machine speed,” a June document laying out updates to the initiative warned.

The test in California wasn’t the first time the U.S. military has experimented with robotic “animals.”

The Navy has been experimenting with using robot dogs to help with ship maintenance.

At the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington in 2021, a team from Boston Dynamics took its robot dog Spot for a walk around the D.C. convention center, attracting the undivided attention of one flesh-and-blood canine who was getting walked nearby.

Observation Post is the Military Times one-stop shop for all things off-duty. Stories may reflect author observations.

The Marine Corps completed its first test flight Tuesday of a robotic aircraft that could get downed in battle without taking a big chunk out of the service’s budget.

The service received the first of two XQ-58A Valkyrie drones in March as part of its efforts to develop lower-cost unmanned systems, according to a Marine news release Thursday.

The test flight Tuesday was an early step toward getting the robot aircraft ready to fly in support of Marine Corps missions.

“The aircraft performed as expected,” the Corps said, without providing additional details about the results of the flight.

Video of the flight posted by the Marine Corps on Thursday shows the uncrewed jet, which doesn’t require a runway, take off at Eglin Air Force Base on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The Valkyrie — which clocks in at approximately $6.5 million, according to the manufacturer — could be a relatively low-cost way for the Marine Corps to build out its inventory of uncrewed aircraft. In contrast, General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper drone, designed for surveillance, costs approximately $38 million, according to a Pentagon budget document.

The price tag and lack of crew would make the 30-foot-long Valkyrie “attritable,” in Pentagon lingo, meaning it would be OK with the military if the aircraft were downed in combat after a few missions, according to Air Force informational materials.

The long-range drone is highly autonomous, according to the Marine Corps. In other words, more than being simply uncrewed, the Valkyrie can be flown by artificial intelligence and requires minimal help from a human pilot.

The Valkyrie could fly in a variety of missions that crewed aircraft would otherwise complete, according to the Air Force, and could serve as a wingman to a traditional crewed aircraft.

The Marine Corps is engaged in a wide-ranging overhaul, called Force Design 2030, in an effort to prepare for conflict with a powerful, technologically capable military, especially China’s. That effort involves getting robots and drones into the hands of Marines, and training Marines to operate them.

The test flight Tuesday occurred as part of the Marine Corps’ Penetrating Affordable Autonomous Collaborative Killer – Portfolio program, according to the news release. The Corps is partnering with the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the Naval Air Systems Command and the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division on the Valkyrie.

In Norse mythology, a Valkyrie is a supernatural maiden who selects those to be slain in battle and taken to Valhalla, where those slain warriors reside. The manufacturer of the XQ-58A Valkyrie is the U.S. technology company Kratos, which takes its name from the personification of strength and power in Greek mythology.

The test flight Tuesday wasn’t the first overall for the Valkyrie drone. The Air Force, whose research laboratory developed the aircraft in partnership with Kratos, conducted the inaugural test flight in March 2019.

But the Corps’ test flight of the Valkyrie is a way for the service to determine what it requires from the drone, according to the news release.

The Marine Corps’ six planned test flights with the Valkyrie will evaluate aspects of the drone that include its ability to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions and the potential for it to serve as a robotic wingman, according to the release.

The 1st Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion’s Headquarters and Service Battery was reactivated at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, on Thursday, according to a Marine Corps news release. The rest of the unit will get reactivated in phases that will culminate in 2028.

The battalion primarily will be focused on close-in, low-altitude, surface-to-air weapons, according to the release. It also will be able to provide command and control for ground security, the release said.

The 1st Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion is part of Marine Air Control Group 18, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force. That expeditionary force — based in Okinawa, Japan — has taken on increased importance for the Marine Corps as part of a China-focused redesign of the service.

One of the demands of Force Design 2030, as the redesign is called, is that the Corps get better at staving off drone attacks. That’s where the low altitude air defense battalions come in.

The Marine Corps’ 2024 budget request includes more than $200 million to buy and upgrade light Marine air defense integrated systems, known as L-MADIS, for the battalions, Marine Corps Times previously reported.

The West-Coast-based I Marine Expeditionary Force and the East-Coast-based II Marine Expeditionary Force already have low altitude air defense battalions.

The 1st Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion was established as 1st Forward Area Air Defense Battery in July 1982 in Okinawa, Japan, according to the release. It got its current name in October 1986 but was redesignated as 1st Stinger Battery in May 1993 after its size was reduced.

The 1st Stinger Battery officially was deactivated in September 2007, according to the release.

Hawaii has been home to a flurry of activations and deactivations as part of Force Design 2030.

In January, the infantry unit 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, was deactivated, the same day that Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 153 was reactivated after a 64-year pause. Artillery unit 1st Battalion, 12th Marines, was deactivated in May.

Meanwhile, the Hawaii-based 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment — which, despite its name, is for now the sole unit of its kind — is set to reach initial operational capability in the fall.

The newly reactivated 1st Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion will use Hawaii as its “strategic hub,” but it will work throughout the Indo-Pacific region, according to the news release.

“We will grow here; we will train here,” Lt. Col. Heath Phillips, the battalion’s commanding officer, said in the release. “But make no mistake about it, our work is west.”

During an exercise at Twentynine Palms, California, a Marine heavy-lift CH-53E Super Stallion provided fuel to an unmanned Navy MQ-8C Fire Scout, as a way to extend the range of the latter aircraft, the Marine Corps said in a Thursday Marine Corps story.

On July 31, the hefty Super Stallion transferred approximately 700 pounds of fuel to the Fire Scout, just under the uncrewed aircraft’s maximum payload, according to the story.

The Super Stallion can afford to hand off that amount of fuel: Its maximum fuel payload is 23,450 pounds. That means the Super Stallion can refuel the Fire Scout multiple times in hard-to-reach areas, keeping the Fire Scout going over longer distances and periods of time, according to the release.

The Fire Scout typically operates from a littoral combat ship, a relatively small Navy vessel designed for operations that take place close to shore, the release said.

But in Service Level Training Exercise 5-23 in the California desert, Marines from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 put the unmanned system to the test in a different kind of environment.

“We are in the desert, but the logistical, administrative, and most importantly the tactical lessons learned here are applicable to any clime and place,” Lt. Col. Nathaniel Griggs, the top acquisitions, construction and improvements officer at Twentynine Palms, California, said in the story.

The refueling occurred with both aircraft on the ground, the story said. The Fire Scout came from the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21.

In recent years, as it has stared down the potential threat of the technologically sophisticated Chinese military, the Marine Corps has emphasized reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, and the role of unmanned aircraft in particular.

The Corps also has contended with what leaders have acknowledged is an outdated, vulnerable logistics system. Fuel and other elements of logistics could come under stress in the more spread-out form of combat for which the service is preparing, new Marine doctrine says.

Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3, also known as the Phantoms, on Wednesday celebrated reaching initial operational capability with the remotely piloted aircraft at a ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, according to a Marine Corps news release.

As the Marine Corps has undergone sweeping transformation with an eye toward potential conflict with China, the service’s leadership has increasingly emphasized reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance.

The MQ-9A Reaper, which is primarily designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, has an endurance of greater than 20 hours and can fly to an altitude of up to 25,000 feet, according to the Corps’ 2022 aviation plan.

The Phantoms will provide aerial reconnaissance for the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, a new kind of Marine unit based in Hawaii created as part of the Force Design restructuring, according to the release.

The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment is supposed to be a “stand-in force” ever-present within reach of strikes from China. The regiment is set to reach initial operational capability in September 2023 and full operational capability two years after that, a Marine spokesman previously told Marine Corps Times.

Although the drones will serve as “the airborne quarterback” for the littoral regiment, in the words of Marine Aircraft Group 24 commander Col. William Heiken, they can also be flown for other purposes.

The squadron’s Reapers can support “a wide range of operations such as coastal and border surveillance, weapons tracking, embargo enforcement, humanitarian/disaster assistance, support of peacekeeping and counter-narcotic operations,” Marine spokesman Maj. Jordan Fox said in a March statement.

Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3, abbreviated VMU-3, has flown a variety of uncrewed aircraft since its 2008 activation, according to the Wednesday news release. The squadron received its first two Reaper drones in April and flew its first Reaper in June.

The first Marine unit to operate the Reaper was the Yuma, Arizona-based Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1, which received its first of the aircraft in 2021.

A slate of bonuses announced in October 2022 had promised $5,000 as the cyber and crypto enlistment bonus, less than the enlistment bonuses for electronics maintenance ($8,000), chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense ($7,000), or music ($6,000).

But the Marine administrative message from October 2022 noted that the amounts could be tweaked “as recruiting environment conditions require.”

Now, Marines enlisting into cyber and crypto operations jobs in fiscal year 2023 will receive the heftiest enlistment bonus for any job in the Corps, once they complete training and receive their primary military occupational specialties, according to a June 26 Marine news release.

The military occupational specialties eligible for the bonus are cyberspace warfare operator (1721), communications intelligence/electronic warfare operator (2621), electronic intelligence/electronic warfare analyst (2631), cryptologic language analyst (2641) and intelligence surveillance reconnaissance systems engineer (2651), according to the October 2022 administrative message and the Corps’ index of specialties.

With cyberspace a more important domain of warfare than ever, the service has said it needs Marines who can defend against cyber attacks and launch some of their own.

The Marine Corps has acknowledged that it’s having trouble finding enough people to fill its cyber slots. That is one of the reasons for the Corps’ talent management initiatives, which are aimed at building a more seasoned, technologically capable force.

The Marine Corps, along with the other military services, is competing for cyber talent with the civilian sector, which often offers higher salaries, a 2022 Government Accountability Office report noted.

In fiscal year 2022, approximately 1,200 Marine recruits enlisted for the cyber jobs in question, according to Marine spokesman Maj. Jordan Cochran. The enlistment bonus that year for those jobs was $2,000.