Photo By Matthew Callahan | Lance Cpl. Timothy Knaggs (center), a team leader with India Company, 3rd Battalion,...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS - Marines with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, are conducting Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory training June 9 through 25, 2014, in Marine Corps Base Hawaii combat camera classrooms and at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows.
The MCWL, part of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command’s Futures Directorate, is based in Quantico, Va., and was established in 1995 under then-commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Charles C. Krulak.
Krulak needed an entity to study current challenges and analyze future threats affecting the Marine Corps.
The lab’s mission is to explore and assess Marine Corps service concepts using a combination of wargaming, concept-based experimentation and technology assessments to analyze, modify, or reject the concept’s viability for future force development.
The Marines and MCWL’s focus during training was to prepare an experimental force and test experimental gear potential in preparation for the advanced warfighting experiment during the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, the world’s largest international nautical warfare exercise.
Lt. Col. Charles Berry, the AWE officer in charge and a native of Carneys Point, N.J., said the AWE is scheduled from July 9 through 14 at Kahuku Training Area, MCTAB, Pacific Missile Range Facility and aboard USS Rushmore and USS Peleliu.
Berry explained the experimental force and gear the Marines are learning and training with, as well as the importance of the overall mission.
“The Marines will operate in a Company Landing Team to get familiar with the organizational construction, as well as with the experimental technology,” Berry said. “The more capabilities (training) the Marines get, the more comfortable with the concepts (the Marines will be).”
A CLT is an altered rifle company table of organization, and a different approach to a Battalion Landing Team. Its effectiveness is tested as an independent unit of action. “We’re asking them to organize in a CLT construct that’s a little bit different,” Berry said. “Some of the (Marines) have actually done CLT operations in Iraq or Afghanistan, however we’re going to ask them to do a little bit more and (put more) responsibilities on the CLTs.”
The gear the Marines are training with include handheld radios, robotic vehicles, water purification systems and tactical medicine.
One of the vehicles is a Legged Squad Support System, a four-legged robot that lessens physical weight on troops, developed by Boston Dynamics.
“The LS3 is like a robotized mule,” Berry said. “It weighs approximately 1,200 to 1,400 pounds and is amazing what it can do to stay upright and right itself (due to its articulating legs). It’s an interesting investigation as to what might be possible in the future with the way technology is developing, and we are trying to help shape that.”
Berry discussed how this training and equipment may help shape future Marine Corps operations.
“When we examine these concepts we are trying to inform the future force development,” Berry said. “We experiment to advance the ideas with a different set of data. I care about how the Marine is going to use (the gear) and best employment, and the impact it has on the Marine.”
| Date Taken: | 07.16.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.16.2014 16:27 |
| Story ID: | 136315 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS AIR STATION KANEOHE BAY, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 239 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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