Yahoo Movies The Marines Want to Arm Their Infantry With Suicide Drones
Loitering munitions can perform reconnaissance like traditional drones, but they include an explosive warhead to destroy targets.
It’s all part of an effort to add more powerful, responsive weapons that can be easily hauled across long distances.
The U.S. Marine Corps wants to upgrade its infantry battalions by adding loitering munitions to its toolbox. Loitering munitions, which include both a sensor package and a warhead, would add both a reconnaissance and precision attack capability in an easily deployable, inexpensive package. They are also known as “suicide drones” because of their one-way trip mission profile and would effectively give the infantry their own short range flying artillery.
The Marines spell out the need for loitering weapons in the latest update to Force Design 2030, a document that describes how the service is reorganizing to concentrate on one enemy: China. The Marines have studied the Chinese military, especially its militarized islets, shoals, and reefs in the South China Sea, and concluded they must grow lighter, ditching their tanks and gun artillery, while adding anti-ship missiles, rocket artillery, and more firepower at the battalion level.
The Marines will add an unknown number of loitering munitions to their 27 active duty and reserve battalions. The drones are considered a “‘close-combat lethality enhancement,” likely meaning they will be on call from small unit commanders to kill tanks, destroy bunkers, and target other enemy forces holding up a Marine advance.
The Marines have already acquired loitering munitions in the form of the Hero 120. The drone, made by Israeli defense contractor UVision, weighs 27 pounds, has a flight time of 60 minutes, and can fly up to 24 miles away from its human controller. It also packs what UVision considers an anti-tank warhead, allowing it to destroy enemy tanks and armored vehicles. The Hero 120 has been integrated onto the LAV-M, the Marine Corps 8x8 armored vehicle that traditionally carries an 81mm mortar system. It will also be added to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, the replacement for the Humvee, and the Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV).
The new loitering munitions will support a battalion of around 800 to 850 Marines, and will likely require the ability to kill enemy tanks. One option is the already-deployed Hero 120. Another is the AeroVironment Switchblade 600, a weapon with about the same range and size, which packs a warhead derived from the one used on the Javelin anti-tank missile. The U.S. government has promised to send an unspecified number of Switchblade 600s to Ukraine to bolster the country’s defenses against the Russian Army. Here's a virtual press briefing that describes the drone's capabilities:
Part of the drive to acquire loitering munitions is the reduction or outright elimination of tanks and long-range gun artillery. The Marines have disbanded their tank battalions, totaling about 200 tanks overall, arguing that the 65 ton vehicles would not be needed in a fight on a small island where the battlefield is measured in acres. The Marines are also reducing the number of cannon batteries equipped with the M777 howitzer from 21 to five, while boosting the number of rocket artillery batteries equipped with the HIMARS truck-based rocket system from seven to 21.
Loitering munitions are excellent candidates for taking up the firepower slack. If a marine battalion lands on a Chinese-held islet, the loitering munitions can be launched from vehicles parked on the deck of amphibious ships, then go ashore and support an advance inland. Howitzers like the M777 would have to go ashore first and set up, and then would have a minimum firing range of up to 2.7 kilometers—on an island that might not be two kilometers long! Unlike the tanks they replace, a loitering drone would be more responsive to requests for support, quickly flitting from one side of an island to another to deliver a precision punch.
The Marine Corps is taking a bold step to reinvent itself, one that not everyone agrees with. The addition of loitering munitions, however, has seemingly escaped criticism. The new weapons are just too useful to object to. While some retired Marine generals bemoan the loss of the Marines’ tank units, it seems everyone is in agreement that loitering munitions are a good idea.
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