Sacred Ground: Technology Advancement at the Squad Level and Operational Realities
Abstract
Technology and the character of war have always played a significant role in determining how militaries organize their formations. In response to the increased range of weapons systems, armies began to fight with greater dispersion between forces eventually giving rise to rifle squad. The Marine Corps recently adopted several changes to the rifle squad to leverage technology and match it with a squad structure to achieve victory in a future conflict. However, merely adding on technology and reorganizing forces is insufficient. Updated doctrine is necessary to provide standardization and a baseline for training. Training needs updating to address the increased number of systems and tasks placed on squads. To overcome some of these difficulties, it requires the Marine Corps to recruit and retain higher quality people. Yet, outdated manpower policies make achieving changes to recruitment and retention difficult. To achieve the victory in the next war the Marine Corps must be able to incorporate technology, have a realistic understanding of the character of warfare, and craft doctrine, training, and policy to create an organization capable of success on the battlefield.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 26, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1177314
Entities
People
- Nathan T. Mcandrews
Organizations
- Marine Corps University