The Corps’ first Training and Education annual report on Force Design published Wednesday ― and the 14-page document noted moves made and laid out deadlines in areas across the service for modernizing how Marines learn.

Lt. Gen. Kevin Iiams, head of Training and Education Command, said in a press release that the document was the command’s “strategic vision” to implement education that matches modernization in Force Design and new equipment and technologies entering the ranks.

“These initiatives collectively aim to equip the Marine Corps with the most modern, lethal, and capable Marines conceivable,” Iiams said. “Our efforts have been, and will continue to be, centered on two core pillars: Force Design and modernization. By driving innovation along these vectors, (Training and Education Command) is ensuring the development of a Marine Corps force primed not only to compete but to dominate in any theater of operation.”

The Training and Education 2030 planning document released in January 2023, under then-Commandant Gen. David Berger, laid out gaps in doctrine for such skills as drone and cyber operations, and emphasized modernizing training simulators and other education technologies.

Changes in training could have a direct, early impact on Marines in fires or communications jobs and new officers.

Training command has undertaken a two-phased study with combat development and integration to examine the “quality spread” policy used at The Basic School when assigning new officer military occupational specialties.

The quality spread is used to ensure that top finishers and lower-ranking graduates are spread evenly across the various job fields to avoid bunching up lower performers in one job field.

In its first phase, the study evaluated if evidence supports whether the policy should continue. Those results are expected by the end of June.

If it is found deficient, then the second phase of the study will build an alternate assignment model. That phase is scheduled to conclude before October.

Using a series of recent studies, the Marines plan to determine if measures testing an individual’s resiliency to help “screen out those who may be more susceptible to stress or adverse behaviors” to help lower attrition rates.

The Corps launched a pilot program in April at Marine Detachment Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to build a course for field artillery officers, target acquisition officers and field artillery scout observer chiefs.

The course aims to give those fires Marines in fires and effects coordination centers or fleet maritime operations centers advanced training.

The communication training battalion at Training Command is assessing how to combine critical skillsets from three communications job fields, 062X, 063X and 067X. That merging of those skills would make a more versatile communications Marine for multidisciplinary, “independent communications and information operators.”

As the Corps adopted its new training and education approach, it was evaluating how its instructors taught students and how the instructors themselves were selected and retained.

From that three-year evaluation has come an “outcomes-based learning” approach method. That method, while common in other education circles, has been less prevalent in military education. The approach puts more emphasis on having instructors guide students who learn both individually and in groups, completing tasks and problem-solving.

This is a break from the lecture model with an expert rattling off information at the front of a classroom for students to repeat on a test or quiz before moving to the next assignment.

The outcomes-based learning model will spread across the Corps, as the service has updated its formal school policy directives to include these methods.

“Instead of teaching them what to think, we’re teaching them how to think,” Col. Karl Arbogast, director of the policy and standards division at Training and Education Command, told Marine Corps Times in a previous interview.

But to teach this way requires training the instructors as well.

That’s resulted in two new exceptional military occupational specialty codes: 0951 and 0952. These are in addition to a Marine’s primary job but allow them to learn how to instruct.

The basic instructor course will be available to Marines by the end of fiscal year 2024 with the intermediate and master courses ready by fiscal year 2026, according to this week’s report.

Training Command is assessing both selection and retention of such qualified instructors, according to the report, and analyzing current and future incentive options to retain high-performing instructors.

On the technology side, the Corps has migrated its legacy information management system to a hybrid cloud system. The service expects to have a new, cloud-based version of the system fully operational by fiscal year 2028.

Tech moves are expanding war-gaming access through cloud services and expect to have war-gaming featured in all formal schools and primary military education by fiscal year 2025 and across the fleet by fiscal year 2026.

Also in the tech vein, the service will have deployed live, virtual, constructed training simulators to Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, Camp Pendleton, California and Marine Corps Bases Hawaii and Okinawa, Japan, before October.

At the same time, each Marine expeditionary force and the Marine air-ground task force training command will receive one battalion-capable Marine Corps Tactical Instrumentation System by summer.

The training command is preparing to field electromagnetic spectrum simulators at Twentynine Palms, California, that can replicate adversary electronic warfare capabilities in training.

The Marines plan to use simulators to cut down on injuries as well.

They have a project underway to identify ground training events that have a high rate of injury, mishap or casualty. They’ll then include simulator training prior to live execution of those types of training events, starting with the motor transport tasks before October.

Lastly, to cut down on Marines awaiting training for schools, the new policy will identify Marines prior to recruit training graduation who will wait longer than 10 days between Marine Combat Training and their follow-on school and assign them to the Permissive Recruiter Assistance Support Program.

Also, Marines in lengthy awaiting training periods will be offered a voluntary reclassification to a job that is experiencing shortfalls and an immediate school ship date.

The full rollout, expected in August, is the latest step in the $136 million Navy Enterprise Service Desk venture, meant to modernize and consolidate more than 90 IT help desks into one central node. General Dynamics Information Technology announced it was awarded the NESD indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract in late 2021.

Sailors, Marines and civilians with a common access card and who can be verified through the Global Federated User Directory will be able to contact Amelia via phone or text. The program should serve more than 1 million users around-the-clock responses based on a depth of training and insider know-how. Additional applications, such as in a classified environment, could follow.

“Predominantly, we’ve had to have agents around who had knowledge of ‘how do I fix a specific issue,’” Travis Dawson, GDIT’s chief technology officer for the Navy and Marine Corps sector, told C4ISRNET in an interview. “Well, that issue can be documented, right? And once it’s documented, we can go ahead and have that resolved via automation, without the human interaction.”

While Amelia is taught to answer questions and complete repetitive tasks, Dawson said it is capable of more, such as sensing frustration in user queries.

“In the AI world, I will tell you, they get really sensitive when you call conversational AI a bot,” he said. “A bot has a back-ended script, right? So it’s only going to tell you the answer that it knows. If it doesn’t tell you, you sit at a dead end.”

Should Amelia be unable to answer a question or fix a problem, it is capable of forwarding the matter to a live agent — the sort of human-to-human interaction traditionally associated with connectivity woes or locked accounts. In testing, Amelia has helped slash the number of abandoned calls “significantly,” and the “first-contact resolution rate has been pretty high, in the higher 90 percentile,” according to Dawson.

“People are able to get their answers quicker than they have historically,” he said.

The Pentagon is spending billions of dollars on AI advancement and adoption. The technology is being applied to both the battlefield and the boardroom. It can assist target identification onboard combat vehicles, and it can parse mass amounts of personnel and organizational info.

GDIT, a division of General Dynamics, the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by revenue, in May launched a tech-investment strategy with focuses on zero-trust cybersecurity, 5G wireless communications, automation for IT operations, AI and more.

The company provided C4ISRNET a rendering of Amelia as a female sailor in uniform. No explanation of the name or gender selection was given.

“The requirement moving forward was to have the integration of an AI capability,” Dawson said. “And with automation that’s out there today, Amelia fit the bill.”

Two senators asked Smith at his confirmation hearing before the Senate’s armed services committee about the downstream consequences of the blanket block on senior military nominations by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.

Tuberville has held up nominations for general and and flag officers since February in protest of a Pentagon policy that offers troops travel expenses and leave if they have to go out of state to obtain an abortion.

“Would you say that this consistent blocking of these nominations is compromising national security?” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, asked the general.

“Sir, I think it certainly compromises our ability to be most ready,” said Smith, the assistant Marine commandant.

He provided an example: Each of the three Marine expeditionary forces, the largest building block forces under which Marine units fall, is headed by a three-star general with a one-star deputy. At the largest Marine expeditionary force, the three-star in charge will soon retire, Smith said.

“When he does so, there’ll be a one-star, a fairly new one, in charge of that 48,000-person Marine expeditionary force,” Smith said.

“And that compromises readiness and decision-making and the effectiveness of that division?” King asked in a follow-up question.

“Sir, it does,” Smith said.

Smith was referring to I Marine Expeditionary Force, the Marine Corps’ West-Coast-based force, Maj. Joshua Larson, a Marine spokesman, told Marine Corps Times.

The White House in March nominated Lt. Gen. Michael Cederholm, the current aviation boss, to succeed Lt. Gen. George Smith, the current head of I Marine Expeditionary Force.

The force’s deputy commander, Brig. Gen. Robert Fulford, pinned on his first star in 2019.

In response to a question by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Smith emphasized that it wasn’t that one-star generals aren’t capable leaders — they simply have less experience.

“I’ve been doing this for 36 years,” Smith said. “So as I walk a flight line, or as I walk a firing range, or as I walk through a barracks, there’s a high likelihood there’s not much I haven’t seen, and I can fix things before they get started.”

One misstep by an less experienced leader can have cascading effects on the entire operation, Smith said.

Smith also noted, in response to a question from King, that a hold on general-officer nominations affects not just would-be generals but also lieutenant colonels.

The Marine Corps has a cap on its number of colonels, Smith said, so when a colonel can’t ascend to brigadier general, a lieutenant colonel can’t take his or her spot.

The current Marine commandant, Gen. David Berger, is statutorily required to end his term July 10.

President Joe Biden on May 30 nominated Smith to succeed Berger, but Tuberville’s hold on nominations may throw a wrench in that process.

Tuberville, for his part, appeared willing to support Smith for the job of “head coach,” as he put it — if or when he ceases his hold on nominations. Earlier in the hearing, Tuberville expressed his admiration for Smith.

“Congratulations on your nomination, and look forward to supporting you,” the senator said.

Tuberville praised the general in particular for saying that the Corps’ focus was on war-fighting and lethality.

“We live in a dangerous world, dangerous world,” Tuberville said. “I would hope that some of your colleagues in the Pentagon would catch on a little bit to that and get politics out of this. I mean, politics is detrimental to a lot of things. It’s good for some things, some things it’s not. In the military, it’s not.”

Joshua Abate and Dodge Dale Hellonen are scheduled to be sentenced in September by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes. Both pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia.

Many Capitol rioters are military veterans, but only a few were actively serving in the armed forces when they joined a mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

A third active duty Marine, Micah Coomer, also was charged with Abate and Hellonen. Coomer pleaded guilty to the same misdemeanor charge in May and is scheduled to be sentenced by Reyes on Aug. 30.

All three men face a maximum sentence of six months of imprisonment.

As of May 19, the Marines were still in the service. No additional information was available Monday.

David Dischley, an attorney for Abate, declined to comment on his client’s guilty plea. An assistant public defender who represents Hellonen didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Authorities arrested the three men in January: Abate at Fort Meade, Maryland; Coomer in Oceanside, California; and Hellonen in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Witnesses stationed with Coomer at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia and with Hellonen at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina identified them in videos of the Jan. 6 riot, according to the FBI. A third witness — also a Marine — identified Abate from footage captured inside the Capitol, the FBI said.

During a June 2022 for his security clearance, Abate said he and two “buddies” had walked through the Capitol on Jan. 6 “and tried not to get hit with tear gas,” according to an FBI special agent.

“Abate also admitted he heard how the event was being portrayed negatively and decided that he should not tell anybody about going into the U.S. Capitol Building,” the agent wrote in an affidavit.

After the riot, Coomer posted photos on Instagram with the caption “Glad to be (a part) of history.” The angles of the photos and the caption indicated he had been inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, the FBI said. The phone number listed for Coomer in his military personal file matched the Instagram account.

Coomer drove to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6 from his military post in Virginia. He attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally with Abate and Hellonen before they entered the Capitol. Inside the Rotunda, they placed a red “Make America Great Again” hat on a statute before taking photos of it, prosecutors said. The three men spent nearly an hour inside the Capitol before leaving.

Less than a month after the riot, Coomer told another Instagram user that he believed “everything in this country is corrupt.”

“We honestly need a fresh restart. I’m waiting for the boogaloo,” he wrote, according to the FBI.

When the other user asked what that term meant, Coomer wrote, “Civil war 2.”

“Boogaloo” movement supporters use the term as slang for a second civil war or collapse of civilization. They frequently show up at protests armed with rifles and wearing Hawaiian shirts under body armor.

Over 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Approximately 600 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors punishable by maximum terms of imprisonment of six months or one year.

Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

Navy Capt. John W. Kurtz commanded the amphibious transport dock Somerset on July 30, 2020, when the amphibious assault vehicle sunk off California, killing eight Marines and a sailor.

A platoon of amphibious assault vehicles left the Somerset on the evening of the mishap and used two other amphibious assault vehicles as safety boats, because other boats promised by the Somerset were not operational, an investigation found.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro issued Kurtz a censure letter in June 2022 that noted that an investigation into the sinking “did not establish that any of USS SOMERSET’s actions or inactions caused the sinking.”

But it also states that Kurtz failed in his duties to oversee amphibious assault vehicle operations as the primary control officer.

“As the primary control officer, you ultimately bear responsibility to ensure positive control and leadership oversight over waterborne AAV operations and you failed to do so,” Del Toro wrote.

Kurtz’s name appeared in late 2022 on a fiscal 2024 aviation major command screening board to helm a carrier, Navy Times reported in November 2022.

But the following month, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday removed Kurtz’s name from the selection list “pursuant to his authorities,” the CNO’s spokesperson, Cmdr. Courtney Hillson, said in an email Monday.

Kurtz’s removal was based on the “adverse information” in the secretarial censure letter and the Navy’s investigation into the mishap, she added.

Task and Purpose first reported Gilday removing Kurtz from the list.

A Marine Corps investigation into the incident found serious deficiencies and errors in judgment made by top leaders, while the Navy investigation mostly exposed flaws in the way the two services interacted during amphibious assault vehicle operations.

When the service announced on April 29 the short-notice deployment of Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, it provided few details.

Marine spokesman Lt. Col. L. L. Gilbert told Marine Corps Times at the time that approximately 20 Marines would “temporarily provide routine air defense support to a larger, layered air-defense effort within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.” Back then, he declined to elaborate further, citing operational security.

Now, the Marine Corps has specified that 17 Marines from the expeditionary unit’s low-altitude air-defense detachment were deployed to Kuwait in support of U.S. Army Central, the Army formation focused on the Middle East and surrounding countries.

“The 26th MEU LAAD served as a link in a chain of layered air defense programs, systems and capabilities designed to defeat adversary Unmanned Aerial Systems within the U.S. CENTCOM Area of Responsibility,” Capt. Angelica White in a statement Monday to Marine Corps Times.

The Marines “demonstrated the USMC’s ability to rapidly deploy and redeploy episodic air-defense support capabilities,” Gilbert said in a statement to Marine Corps Times on Friday.

The spokespersons’ statements didn’t offer more specifics about the impetus for the deployment.

Gilbert declined to name the air-defense system the detachment used. That information is sensitive, he said.

“What I can say is that ‘Low-Altitude Air Defense’ captures both the proper title of the unit and the characterization of their mission,” he said in a follow-up statement to Marine Corps Times on Monday. “It is also accurate to say, as we have before, that they served as a cog in the wheel of a larger, layered air-defense effort within the (area of responsibility).”

Among the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s capabilities is the light Marine air defense integrated system, Task & Purpose previously noted.

The L-MADIS is the only counter-unmanned aerial system platform based on the East Coast that is permanently part of the Marine Corps’ capabilities, according to a photo caption on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Site.

Twelve of those systems already have been fielded, according to a Marine Corps planning document released earlier in June. The L-MADIS is light enough to be loaded onto the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft or Marine cargo helicopters.

All 17 Marines who deployed to Kuwait received the Army Achievement Medal before they returned to North Carolina, where they are based, White said.

The Army Achievement Medal is awarded to troops who distinguish themselves “by meritorious service or achievement” that doesn’t rise to the level of an Army Commendation Medal, according to the Army awards manual.

The Marines’ medals did not include a “C” device, which recognizes actions that took place in combat, or an “R” device, which recognizes actions that took place outside of an operational area but in direct support of combat, according to White.

It’s unclear where, exactly, in Kuwait the Marines went.

The U.S. military has several bases in the country. In fact, Germany, Japan and South Korea are the only foreign countries host more U.S. service members than Kuwait, according to a 2021 fact sheet by the State Department.

The recent deployment is the first time a Marine low-altitude air-defense detachment has deployed on short notice to support operations in Central Command, White said.

The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit was entering the last stage of a predeployment training program when the group of Marines deployed, the Marine Corps stated in its news release announcing the deployment.

The 26th MEU is based at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and is set to deploy in July to areas that fall under European Command, Africa Command and Central Command, according to White.

The planned delivery halt of new fighters loaded with Technology Refresh 3 hardware means manufacturer Lockheed Martin may have to store dozens of the planes at its main factory in Fort Worth, Texas, for much of the rest of the year, and perhaps into spring 2024.

The F-35′s Technology Refresh 3 effort — a slate of improvements that aim to give the fighter better displays, computer memory and processing power — was originally due this past April. TR-3 is necessary before the F-35 can receive a more expansive modernization known as Block 4, which will allow the fighter to carry more long-range precision weapons, improve its electronic warfare capability and provide better target recognition.

The TR-3 schedule has slipped considerably, and the F-35 Joint Program Office is now expecting it to arrive no earlier than this December — and perhaps as late as April 2024, a full year behind schedule.

The F-35 Joint Program Office said in a statement to Defense News that the TR-3 delays will in turn disrupt deliveries, causing new fighters to have to be stored in the meantime.

“Starting later this summer, F-35 aircraft coming off the production line with TR-3 hardware will not be accepted until relevant combat capability is validated in accordance with our users’ expectations,” JPO spokesman Russ Goemaere said in an email. “The JPO and Lockheed Martin will ensure these aircraft are safely and securely stored until [acceptance] occurs.”

Breaking Defense first reported the Defense Department’s plan to not accept new F-35s.

Lockheed is now building F-35s with TR-3 hardware installed, and the first such fighter is expected to come off the production line by the end of July, Goemaere said.

The challenge lies in the TR-3 software and getting the programming to work with the new hardware., he said.

In March, F-35 program executive officer Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt told the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces that the development of TR-3′s hardware had lagged behind and its production started slow, but that it had improved and became reliable.

Software integration, Schmidt said, began late and was proving difficult.

The JPO on Monday said the Defense Department will continue to accept deliveries of fighters with the previous hardware and software known as Technology Refresh 2.

“The government and industry team will continue to work this issue until full resolution is achieved,” Goemaere said.

Lockheed said it remains committed to delivering the first TR-3-enabled F-35 this year.

“Our team is fully dedicated to delivering TR-3 F-35 aircraft and will continue to work with the JPO on software development while maintaining the highest levels of safety and quality,” the company said in a statement to Defense News. “We continue to deliver aircraft in the TR-2 configuration as planned.”

CEO Jim Taiclet this year downplayed the potential for the problems to affect F-35 deliveries. In an April earnings call, after the TR-3 delays were acknowledged to lawmakers, he said the company expected deliveries to be lower than anticipated, but said they would be a “fraction” of total Lockheed’s total deliveries and would have “little to no” effect on the company’s aeronautics revenue.

If the problem is not resolved by the end of the year, perhaps dozens of new F-35s could be undelivered by the end of the year.

Lockheed Martin said in an email to Defense News that it is too early to say how many fighters might be affected, and the company did not say how many F-35s with TR-3 hardware it expects to build this year. The company originally planned to deliver between 147 and 153 total fighters in 2023.

Lockheed on Monday said that it has so far delivered more than 45 F-35s this year, with about 50 more TR-2 F-35s now under construction.

This will be the third time in less than a year that F-35 deliveries have been halted. In September 2022, the Pentagon announced that it had temporarily halted F-35 deliveries after the discovery of a Chinese-sourced alloy had for years been used to make a key magnet in the fighter. Those deliveries resumed in October 2022 after the Pentagon decided the Chinese material did not pose a danger to security or flight safety and issued a waiver.

Pre-delivery acceptance flights were also halted in December, which had the effect of also halting deliveries, due to an engine vibration problem that led to a Dec. 15 mishap involving an F-35B. After a fix was put in place that allowed Lockheed Martin to resume acceptance flights, the Defense Department once again began accepting new F-35s.

In the March hearing, subcommittee chairman Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., called the TR-3 delays “unacceptable,” and said it would hurt Air Force squadrons that need the new fighters to replace older, retiring aircraft.

Wittman also quoted an unnamed Air Force official who said of the F-35, “We currently are paying for a great capability, but we’re currently only getting a good capability fielded.”

Inside the 2024 budget request is more than $200 million to purchase the systems and fund upgrades to make them even more formidable against aerial targets.

The operational debut of MADIS came in July 2019, when its light version, or L-MADIS, mounted on a variant of the Polaris MRZR all-terrain vehicle shot down an Iranian drone while deployed aboard the amphibious assault ship Boxer.

The mission, which came about a month after Iran downed an expensive U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk, showcased the transportability and effectiveness of the MADIS family of systems.

With air defense identified as a focus area in Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger’s Force Design 2030, and the MADIS family of systems specifically called out as a priority, the Marine Corps is substantially ready to invest in the technology.

The requested funding for fiscal 2024 will include $130.2 million, or about $10 million apiece, to buy 13 MADIS Increment 1 systems, to be mounted on top of joint light tactical vehicles; $24.6 million to retrofit seven previously procured systems with existing technology; and another $12.5 million for training and logistics.

Another $8 million is dedicated to procuring engineering change orders “required to ensure increased lethality against evolving threats,” according to a budget justification document.

The document adds that the MADIS Increment 1 Block 2 upgrade, which will start the acquisition process by fall, “will focus on kinetic and non-kinetic capability supporting increased lethality.”

In 2022, the Marine Corps held an industry day focused on the same goal: building capabilities into the next version of MADIS that will enable it to be lethal against more, and larger, drones.

Program Manager Ground-Based Air Defense “intends to acquire solutions from vendors that are capable of providing a Group 1 and 2, with potential for 3, (counter-unmanned aerial system) defeat capability via an effector,” an event notice stated. “The effector would increase the range of C-UAS defeat capability to augment the current defeat mechanisms.”

As defined by the U.S. military, Group 1 and 2 unmanned aerial systems weigh up to 55 pounds, operate at altitudes up to 3,500 feet, and travel at speeds of 100 miles per hours or more. Group 1 unmanned aerial systems include the hand-launched and remote-controlled RQ-11 surveillance drone, for example; Group 2 includes the catapult-launched, long endurance ScanEagle.

Group 3 is an order of magnitude greater in size and capability; it includes drones weighing up to 1,320 pounds and capable of operating at 18,000 feet of altitude and at nearly 300 miles per hour. One Group 3 platform is the Aerovironment T-20, a catapult-launched drone that can stay airborne for up to 24 hours.

Making MADIS effective against a greater range of unmanned aircraft would make it more formidable and more versatile, particularly in a deployed environment.

A request for proposals “will be released prior to the end of the current fiscal year for the MADIS Block 2 effort that will be seeking industry solutions to meet a full range of defeat technologies to counter the UAS threat,” Barbara Hamby, a spokeswoman for Program Executive Office Land Systems, told Marine Corps Times in an email.

The Block 1 JLTV-mounted MADIS system comes in two variants. Mk1, for airborne threats, includes turret-launched and shoulder-fired Stinger missiles for mounted and dismounted ops, multifunctional electronic warfare capability and an electro-optical infrared optic. The MK2, specialized for drone-killing, includes multi-functional electronic warfare, 360-degree radar, and a command-and-control communications suite.

“The high-powered tactical and electronic technologies of MADIS Inc 1.0 gives indispensable advantages to low altitude air defense battalions conducting fire and maneuver missions within the weapons engagement zone,” Hamby said. “The MADIS Mk1 and Mk2 form a complementary pair and will be the basic building block of the LAAD Battalions’ ground-based air defense capability.”

L-MADIS, which is small enough to be transported in a sling below an H-53 helicopter, also comes as a two-vehicle set. The Mk-1 variant can transmit and receive data from air and ground platforms, while the Mk-2 adds target detection, tracking, and friend-or-foe identification, according to budget documents.

Easily deployable aboard ships, these systems will provide an added layer of defense for Marine expeditionary units at sea.

The 2024 budget request includes $32.5 million for L-MADIS procurement, including $23 million for five L-MADIS systems and the remainder for logistics, labor and training.

Prior to fielding, several MADIS and L-MADIS systems already are operating in the fleet.

An L-MADIS vehicle deployed aboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit is currently the only counter-unmanned aerial system on the East Coast organic to the Marine Corps, according to releases. In January, the system was secured on the flight deck to track a simulated adversary vessel in the Atlantic.

In November 2022, the Marine Corps activated Charlie Battery, 3rd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, California, underscoring the substantial role ground-based air defense will play in the ongoing force modernization effort amid greater ubiquity and variety of threats from above.

The battery’s core equipment will include MADIS, as well as Stinger missiles to neutralize the airborne threats it detects.

The new and soon-to-be-equipped unit represented “is another piece to the pie of modernizing the force to meet future threats,” Maj. Crispus M. Kimani, operations officer for 3rd Low Altitude Air Defense battalions Battalion, said in a release.

The category four cyclone ripped through the Pacific archipelago in late May, cutting power lines, uprooting trees and disrupting water supplies.

Personnel stationed at Naval Base Guam, Andersen Air Force Base and Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz — in concert with the Army guardsmen, reservists, the Coast Guard, FEMA and other agencies — have all been involved in recovery efforts, both military and civilian, and assisting local governments. A combined joint task force led by U.S. Army Pacific and Task Force West is spearheading the military’s efforts.

Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson, commander of Task Force West, and all military installation commanding officers in Guam “are diligently working to restore steady state to the bases and dedicate resources to all FEMA mission assignments,” according to a Navy news release.

No new arrivals — for now

In a May 23 naval administrative message, Vice Adm. Richard Cheeseman Jr., the chief of naval personnel, announced that the Navy would be pausing all PCS moves to Guam “for Navy uniformed members, civilians and their dependents” until June 30. Sailors PCSing out of the territory can leave as soon as they secure travel. The pause doesn’t apply to personnel slated for temporary additional duty.

The Air Force took a similar tack May 25, halting inbound PCS assignments to Andersen for 60 days “in order to ensure incoming service members and their families have adequate resources available to them,” an Air Force spokseperson told Military Times. Andersen expected to receive 240 PCS arrivals between June and August, public affairs officials from the 36th Wing, the base’s host unit, told Military Times. Around 400 people have moved out of the Air Force base to their next assignment since the typhoon made landfall.

“The stop movement also gives 36th Wing leadership time to evaluate the damage done to our resources while also making sure we’re prepared to take care of the families that are due to PCS to Andersen,” the official added.

The PCS pause timeline may shift depending on the progress of relief efforts.

The Marines, however, haven’t issued a broad suspension of inbound PCSs to Camp Blaz, choosing instead to assess “each individual” PCS arrival, Maj. Diann Rosenfeld, a spokesperson for Marine Corps Installations Pacific, told Military Times. Around a dozen Marines plan to PCS to Guam between June and July; one has arrived since the storm swept through, and all outbound June PCSs have departed.

“We are taking all necessary steps to accommodate PCSers already en route to Guam,” Rosenfeld added. “For example, because comms were limited directly after the storm, our sponsors have met face-to-face with different agencies across the island to ensure those agencies could still support our inbound Marines.”

The Air Force described similar plans.

“There are various courses of actions (COAs) in place for members that were due to PCS here to ensure their needs are met if/when they arrive,” a 36th Wing spokesperson said. “Service members that were already on their way or slated to PCS to Andersen AFB are encouraged to work with their sponsors and chain of command to minimize confusion and ensure a smooth PCS process.”

Military installations across Guam sustained damage during the storm. The extent of the damage and how long repairs will take is still not completely clear. Both of Andersen’s runways are operational and fielding plane-loads of aid daily, according to base personnel.

Over half of the island’s 170,534 inhabitants still lacked electricity as of Thursday, according to the Guam Power Authority. The Guam Waterworks Authority estimated that roughly 30% of residents still don’t have access to clean water. The typhoon’s record-breaking winds and rains caused upwards of $112 million in damage, according to initial tallies.

Military relief groups have raised close to $2 million for the 21,700 service members and dependents living in the territory.

Clouds of thick haze generated by forest fires in Canada wafted southward, polluting thousands of square miles with toxic fumes and forcing millions to minimize their time outdoors. Heeding public health warnings from state and federal agencies, installations from Connecticut to Virginia curtailed routine operations to protect personnel.

Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut, suspended all physical training and sporting activities Thursday for 24 hours and recommended limiting any “strenuous activities to only mission essential tasks.” Fort Hamilton, located in Brooklyn, prohibited outdoor youth activities, shuttered its legal office and closed off its pool (its bowling alley, however, remained open); the base planned to resume normal operations Friday.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, cycled personnel through its outdoor outposts to limit their exposure to the smoke; the facility temporarily closed its gates throughout the day Thursday to accommodate the rotations.

Military installations further south took on similar precautionary measures. Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, urged “sensitive groups” — children, the elderly and the ill — to avoid all outdoor physical activity. In Maryland, Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland called off a Thursday night recreational soccer showdown. Forts Detrick and Meade, and Belvoir in Virginia, all circulated cautionary announcements on their social media feeds.

Farther south in Maryland, Indian Head’s Fleet and Family Readiness program made a more weighty sacrifice, shutting down its Tiki Bar.

The worst of the smoke seemed to have subsided across much of the country. On Thursday evening, the Environmental Protection Agency deemed the air quality in much of New York state, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia to be “very unhealthy” or “hazardous.” By Friday morning, most of the warnings were downgraded to “moderate.”

As a result, many bases have resumed normal operations. A spokesperson from Dover AFB told Military Times that the base was “completely operational” as of Friday afternoon, though “the 436th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron is continuing to monitor the situation and is in lockstep with Dover AFB leadership to mitigate risks to Dover AFB personnel.”

At least 420 active fires — more than half of which are “out of control” — continue to rage across Canada, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Meteorologists and climate experts expect some respite in the coming days, as shifting winds disperse the shroud elsewhere.

But with the ongoing environmental disaster north of the border, the answer to the question of whether more such shutdowns can be expected in coming weeks is simply blowing in the wind.