Lt. Gen David Berger, commanding general of U.S. Marine Corps Combat Development Command, has said the service is working on speeding up its technology experimentation and deployment process, National Defense Magazine reported Thursday.
He noted during the National Defense Industrial Association’s recent Expeditionary Warfare Conference that Marine Expeditionary Force commanders have started initiating experiments for future combat, as past exercises only trained troops for present situations.
“The Marine Corps is really rapidly trying to learn faster, get stuff out to the field faster in … a 70 percent prototype sort of mode,” Berger added.
Brig. Gen. Christian Wortman, commander of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, said that the lab has begun taking on major experiments such as the Advanced Naval Technology Exercise. Wortman added that MCWL is set on executing the next ANTX, which will run for an entire year and focus on operating in contested environments to keep pace with adversaries developing anti-access/area denial or A2/AD weapons.
The upcoming activity will be held in April or May 2019 and include both Marines and Navy sailors.