Cognitive Raiders challenged at RAVEN

Photo By Master Sgt. Lynn Kinney | Marines with 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion from 1st Marine Division participated in Marine Forces Special Operations Command's unit readiness exercise, RAVEN. The training conducted provides exposure to small unit tactics they might not otherwise receive, particularly units like 3rd AABN, whose day-to-day responsibilities are focused on amphibious assault vehicle readiness, basic formations and water ops, and terrain driving. The exercise serves as the certification exercise for a soon-to-be deploying Marine Special Operations Company. It has evolved into a multilevel venue to integrate the various command structures and capabilities deployed by MARSOC. Each level of command, down to the team, is challenged in planning and executing, and command and controlling activities in urban environments. It is also an opportunity to enhance collaboration and strengthen our operational relationships between members of the SOF community, conventional Marine Corps units and other partners with whom Marine Raiders work closely, ensuring MARSOC provides the nation with an agile, adaptive force to meet the complex demands of the future operating environment.  

CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES

12.06.2019

Story by Gunnery Sgt. Lynn Kinney 

Marine Forces, Special Operations Command

Since the release of it’s guiding document MARSOF 2030, the staff at Marine Forces Special Operations Command has been working to streamline and formalize the career track models for critical skills operators and special operations officer populations to get them the relevant operational and educational skills along with experiential opportunities that enhance their effectiveness to the SOF enterprise and the Joint Force.

According to the publication, “The interplay of technological innovation, global demographic shifts, challenges to the post WWII world order, and the rise of both state and non-state powers portend a future operating environment that is increasingly uncertain, volatile, and complex.”

Highlighted in this guide is the concept of a Cognitive Operator, a Marine Raider…a self-motivated, innovative and agile thinker with cross-functional knowledge that can identify and address emerging challenges in any environment.

The component has led several initiatives to promote opportunities for these Marines to expand their understanding of the future operating environment. MARSOC is working closely with the Ellis Group at the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in order to understand how the Marine Corps envisions the future fight and the type of Raider it would take to support those future operations. Earlier this year, the Plans and Policies Directorate within MARSOC also partnered with the Naval Post Graduate School to conduct, what they hope will be an annual event, the Cognitive Raider Symposium. The occasion highlighted special operations and irregular warfare in and out of Great Power, SOF’s in GPC and proxy warfare, and the application of cyber and information warfare.

The Training and Education Directorate has integrated additional layers of complexity into RAVEN, the component’s Unit Readiness Exercise. At it’s inception in 2012 it only certified the Marine Special Operations Company. Since then, it has evolved into a multilevel venue to integrate the various command structures and capabilities deployed by MARSOC. Each level of command, down to the team, is challenged in planning and executing, and command and controlling activities in urban environments. Through RAVEN, the MARSOC commander ensures operational readiness and capability of Marine Special Operations Forces to conduct special operations missions across a range of military operations and domains. It tests Marine Raiders’ individual and collective abilities to synchronize operations, activities, and actions in the information environment with those in the physical environment to affect decision making and mission planning.

Marine Raiders at every level of this exercise must to be able to seamlessly integrate a wide range of complex tasks – influencing allies and partners; developing an understanding of emerging problems; informing decision makers; applying national, theater and interagency capabilities to problems; and fighting as adeptly in the information space as the physical.

The exercise control group actively challenges the training audience by injecting scenarios and roles players as decisions are made and the exercise progresses. The evolution of the scenario forces individual Marine Raiders, regardless of their area of expertise, to access all the tools available to create affects that support their mission accomplishment.

Raiders must be able to thoughtfully combine intelligence, information and cyber operations to affect opponent decision making, influence diverse audiences and counter false narratives. Furthermore, they Raiders must be able to synchronize operations, activities and actions in the information environment with those in the physical; combining them as naturally as they combine fire and maneuver.

“RAVEN’s scenario design incorporates current and future dynamics the joint force may encounter to present exercise participants challenges across the range of military operations. Within this, participants must account for the implications of tactical actions across operational and strategic levels by leveraging and synchronizing the instruments of national power within a whole of government approach,” according to a former company commander, now the special operations officer in charge of the entirety of RAVEN execution. “Marine Raiders must be able to interact with an interagency country team, foreign military and political partners, and other entities to synchronize organic and nonorganic capabilities.”

RAVEN stresses the unit’s processes, procedures, and SOPs in a way that can’t be replicated by at a local level. According to the exercise director, there are additional stressors associated with RAVEN because it is the unit’s certification exercise, but good units, teams and individuals see past that and seize the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in a live-collection free play exercise.

• Date Taken: 12.06.2019
• Date Posted: 12.06.2019 18:31
• Story ID: 354621
• Location: CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, US