The new list replaces more than 200 affiliation codes that were previously available to service members, grouping many individual identities into expansive categories. The move comes amid sweeping changes to the military’s religious programs and chaplaincy under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Marines have until Sep. 30 to update their personnel records to reflect the slimmed-down options, the service said in an administrative message.

When the Pentagon announced the overarching changes earlier this year, Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, said the shift was designed to help chaplains understand the composition of their units, not delegitimize religious beliefs.

The Marine Corps’ administrative message addressed the intention Parnell described, but said: “as a result of this change, some previously authorized faith and belief designations are no longer individually represented and have been consolidated into broader religious affiliation categories.”

Marines are instructed to choose “the most appropriate” identity when making their selection.

This is not the only recent change to the military’s approach to faith and chaplaincy under the current administration. In March, Hegseth announced that chaplains would no longer wear rank on their uniforms, instead displaying symbols of faith. Last December, he railed against “new age notions” in the Army Spiritual Fitness Guide and said in a video posted on social media that he signed a directive to scrap it.

Soldiers with the 2nd Infantry Division/ROK-U.S. Combined Division trained alongside Marines to outfit Neros Archer Strike first-person-view, or FPV, drones with C4 explosives to attack targets at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in South Korea.

It was the division’s first time using live ordnance with the system.

The training represents part of the military’s broader push to place attack drones directly in the hands of smaller units, giving them the ability to strike targets without relying on assets at higher echelons. Both the Marine Corps and the Army have created specialized units and groups dedicated to the small sky-fliers that have changed the course of modern warfare.

“At my level, the modernization with drones is allowing for on-the-ground troops to, rather than call in company-level or battalion-level assets, within their platoon or squad-sized element, be able to support long-range fires up to 20 kilometers,” said Pfc. Gavin Zerrull, a military intelligence systems maintainer and integrator who participated in the training.

Zerrull is also an FPV coach and operator with Talon Technologies, the “innovation arm” of the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade, according to the Army’s early August release. The effort assesses unmanned aircraft systems for one-way strike missions, intelligence collection, surveillance and cargo delivery.

The Neros Archer Strike drones are made for long-range missions. As seen in photos released by the Army, the drone is small enough to be carried in one hand, with spindly, spider-like legs and antennas.

According to Zerrull, the platform has already been used in the war between Russia and Ukraine, where drones dominate the battlefield.

“What makes this different from a typical drone training event is the fact that we’re working with live ordnance and using a platform that has actively been tested in real-world situations in Ukraine,” he said.

The event, scheduled for Oct. 26-30 at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, will bring together military personnel, government employees, industry and academic partners and contractors supporting the government. Participants will choose one of two tracks: developing AI agents on the Defense Department’s GenAI.mil platform or advanced AI development using the service and school’s resources.

The hackathon’s intent, according to the message, is to “generate practical, digital solutions that solve registered requirements while accelerating the Marine Corps’ ability to integrate AI-enabled capabilities into operations.”

Participants will spend at least two full days hacking — at the unclassified level — before final presentations and judging on the fourth day.

Those interested must apply by Oct. 9. Chosen attendees will be notified by Oct. 16.

The military’s push toward AI and automation is being driven in part by the sheer volume of information expected on a future battlefield. During an exercise earlier this year, the Army found that a large-scale conflict could require troops to process as many as 1,500 targets a day, which is a workload far beyond what a headquarters staff could manage without automation.

With the acceptance of the 359th — and final — tiltrotor aircraft, the Marine Corps marked the end of the MV-22B Osprey program of record, a milestone that will now shift efforts towards “sustaining and modernizing the fleet for decades to come,” the V-22 Joint Program Office, which manages the Osprey program, said in a statement.

“The MV-22B … fundamentally changed the way the Marine Air-Ground Task Force generates combat power,” Lt. Gen. William Swan, the Marine Corps’ deputy commandant for aviation, said in the statement. “It provides commanders with decision space that only speed and reach can provide, connecting ships, bases and distributed forces in ways previous generations could only imagine. Today, Marine commanders build operations around the assumption that the MV-22B will be there.”

Though the Navy and Air Force also use variants of the Osprey, the Marine Corps maintains the majority of the fleet.

The Corps intends to keep the Osprey operational through 2055 with efforts that include improving wiring, working towards pro-rotor gear boxes, standardizing the fleet and redesigning parts of the aircraft for better safety.

The aircraft has a history of safety issues and accidents that have led to the deaths of over 60 service members since 2000, according to prior Military Times reporting, and in 2023, the Defense Department grounded the aircraft after eight service members were killed when an Air Force Osprey crashed.

A 2025 government watchdog report found that the services had not appropriately shared information about Osprey issues amongst each other.

The Osprey was developed to reduce the gap between rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft. Since going operational in 2007, the platform has been involved in 114 deployments and flown more than 683,300 hours, according to the program’s office, which also said the Osprey represents three quarters of all Marine Corps rotary wing support.

The Osprey is produced jointly by Bell and Boeing and according to a Wednesday release from the companies, has been involved in various high-profile missions, including the ongoing Venezuela earthquake response, the 2022 earthquake response in Haiti, operations to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips in 2009 after his ship was hijacked by Somali pirates.

During a training exercise in Twentynine Palms, California, 2nd Marine Regiment paired AeroViroment’s JUMP 20-X with the company’s Switchblade 300 Block 20 loitering munition, a move that could eventually give regiments capabilities beyond the short-range drones currently fielded by the formations.

The JUMP 20-X is a medium-sized unmanned aircraft that is classified as a Group 3 drone. It is capable of remaining airborne for up to 12 hours and carrying a payload of 30 pounds. During the experiment, it launched the Switchblade, which the Marine Corps said struck a target more than 15 miles away.

“[The Marine Corps has] the Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadrons 1, 2, and 3 that fly the MQ-9s in the Group 5 level of assets, but it would be great for the Regiment because we’re outside of the [air] wings,” said Chief Warrant Officer Two Christopher Leone in the service’s release. “We’re supporting the Ground Combat Element that doesn’t have an asset that can fly as far as the Group 5, so this is something that hasn’t been tested before.”

Currently, the regiment only has Group 1 drones, which stay airborne for far less time — typically between 30 and 90 minutes — and operate over much shorter distances. The July tests evaluated whether a larger drone could lengthen the regiment’s reach.

AeroVironment personnel flew the JUMP 20-X while Marines observed because the unit does not have Marines trained to fly Group 3 drones.

The experiment comes as the Marine Corps this month also announced the creation of a new small drone training unit, a move that underscored the integral role drones are now playing in modern warfare.

But instead of a service member resting a finger on the trigger well in preparation for the next shot, in video footage of the Bullfrog weapons system, a hulking, metal machine tilts the weapon just slightly, refocusing itself.

As the U.S. contends with steep expenses to counter cheap drones, Allen Control Systems, or ACS, announced Monday that the Marine Corps has chosen the Bullfrog autonomous weapon system to integrate into its airborne defenses.

The futuristic apparatus is an AI-enabled weapon system that detects, tracks and then automatically aims firearms against aerial threats like drones. That Marine Corps selected the system under its Ground Based Air Defense, or GBAD, program, which develops and fields capabilities to protect forces from airborne attacks.

The service plans to incorporate the Bullfrog into its Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS), a counter-unmanned aircraft system mounted on two vehicles that relies heavily on electronic warfare.

The system is already in use in the Army and Navy and has been approved by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, the Pentagon’s unit established to streamline the acquisition of counter-drone technology.

The Defense Department’s focus on countering drones comes as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have underscored the increasingly important role of cheap drones on the modern battlefield. The Pentagon has placed a growing emphasis on developing and fielding counter-drone technology that is more scalable and less pricey.

Their prevalence has exposed the economic imbalance of U.S. air defense, as small, relatively inexpensive drones have forced the country to expend expensive interceptor missiles that can cost millions of dollars to make.

The challenge has become especially pronounced during the U.S. war with Iran, where American forces have relied heavily on costly defenses to counter Iran’s Shahed drones, which can cost around $35,000 compared to around $4 million for some interceptors. Experts have warned that the cost of a prolonged war may drastically deplete U.S. interceptor stores.

An ACS press release on the Marine Corps deal linked to the Bullfrog M240, which is compatible with the U.S. military’s belt-fed, fully automatic M240 machine gun. According to the company, the M240 system has a maximum effective range of nearly half a mile and can attack medium and large drones weighing up to 1,320 pounds. Without ammunition, the system weighs 300 pounds.

According to the company, which also has variants that support the M2 machine gun and M320 chain gun, the M240 system has “a cost-per-kill as low as $10.”

Other defense firms are also working to procure more affordable counter-UAS defenses. This week, Lockheed Martin announced a cheaper Patriot interceptor missile that they say will have a price tag of less than half of what other multimillion-dollar interceptors cost.

The AAV-P7, or AAV, affectionately known to Marines as Trax, is being replaced by the amphibious combat vehicle. But rather than being retired to storage, the battle-tested tracked vehicles are slated to be transferred to partner nations by experienced instructors.

The AAV entered the service in 1972 and morphed into a mainstay of Corps’ amphibious assault capabilities for decades. It has undergone multiple upgrades over the years and saw combat in Lebanon and Iraq. The platform was officially decommissioned in September 2025.

At the exercise, the AAV was used in doctrinal roles, such as a mechanized assault platform, a logistics carrier and a direct fire asset. The Corps said it was being tested among drones, which have changed the nature of war drastically since the vehicle was first introduced.

For many marines, the Trax was the center of their careers, and its retirement marked an emotional end to what was more than a weapons system.

Master Sgt. Daniel Porter, logistics chief for 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, spent 22 years working on the vehicle after first seeing one as a fresh Marine.

“This has been my home since I started in the Marine Corps,” Porter said in the statement, which later chronicled the Marine’s sentimental last look at the vehicle. “Last ride,” he said, after bidding farewell to the beast he called “old girl.”

Headquartered out of Twentynine Palms, California, the Marine Corps Robotics Integration Group, or MCRIG, will lead the service’s efforts to develop curriculum and integrate points of instruction for small drone warfare.

According to a Corps announcement, MCRIG is slated to focus on two types of cUAS: Group 1 drones, which the service defines as sUAS weighing less than 20 pounds and typically operate below 1,200 feet at speeds less than 100 knots; and Group 2 drones, which weigh between 21 and 55 pounds and typically operate below 3,500 feet at speeds less than 250 knots.

“The MCRIG, as the Marine Corps lead for Group 1 and Group 2 sUAS and C-sUAS training, education, and curriculum development, standardizes service-wide training efforts, institutionalizes POIs, and facilitates delivery across designated Regional Hubs in order to increase readiness and integrate emerging capabilities throughout the Marine Corps Total Force,” the service said in the announcement.

Drones have become integral parts of modern warfare and the “rapid proliferation” of small drones across the Corps and the “evolving threat” from enemy UAS has driven the service’s need for the new group.

The Marine Corps is requesting all small drones education information — such pilot course development and instructor qualification guidance — be coordinated through MCRIC.

To fill the new unit, the service announced the opening of several openings for non-commissioned officers and one opening for a commissioned officer interested in being subject matter experts in UAS technology and development. Eligible Marines interested in applying must be willing to move to California and agree to 24- to 36- month orders.

Joseph Lavar Davis, 47, was convicted of stealing over $1.1 million worth of the military’s pre-packaged Meals-Ready-to-Eat, or MREs, in El Paso, Texas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Texas, said Tuesday, in a scheme involving three other co-defendants and more than 200 pallets of the shelf-stable rations.

MREs, typically sealed in distinctive brown branding, are used to feed troops basic nutrients in austere situations and training exercises.

Known for their energy content as opposed to their taste, the emergency rations can be eaten hot or cold and are notorious for producing foul flatulence and blocked bowels — oftentimes contributing to the MRE’s other moniker of Meal, Refusing to Exit.

According to a statement from the office, the group used false paperwork to acquire MREs from Fort Bliss and Davis created false requests, rented vehicles to move the calorically dense provisions, fixed prices and collected compensation in the operation.

The FBI and Army Criminal Investigation Division agents executed a search warrant on a civilian warehouse in August 2020 and found scores of pallets of MREs that an investigation showed was a holding facility for a company that purchased the rations from people who had pillaged them from Fort Bliss, the statement said.

Davis was named in the February 2025 indictment — along with the three others — for conspiracy to commit theft of government property and a substantive count of theft of government property between Feb. 4, 2020, and Aug. 12, 2020.

The office said that Davis learned the Army’s food procurement process while working in food service supply in the service. When he retired, the statements said, he got a job as a civilian contractor in a similar position.

“Joseph Davis betrayed the very country he once swore to protect in an effort to satisfy his own selfish ambition and a jury of his peers held him accountable for it,” said U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons.

Davis served as a culinary specialist in the Army from May 1998 to May 2018, according to an Army spokesperson. He left the service at the rank of sergeant first class.