air battle, land battle, naval battle
U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Timothy McGuinness fires an RQ-20 Puma during the Training and Logistics Support Activity-West (TALSA) class. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Kirstin Roberts)
Modern Marine Corps 2024 — The Marine Corps will establish a new “fusion center” at its base in Quantico, Virginia, aimed at reviving forgotten technology developed by the Rapid Capabilities Office, military officials say. announced today.
Established over the past few months, this new center will serve as a true hub for the various divisions of the Marine Corps Acquisition and Requirements Division, integrating technology developed by the military and the rigorous requirements developed by Marine Corps leadership. This will result in more effective matching.
The goal is to “enable everyone at Quantico to participate.” [to be] You can go to a fusion center and discuss what the problems that exist are. '' Gen. Stephen Lightfoot, the Marine Corps' senior officer for capability development, told an audience at the Modern Marine Expo here.
“We can sit there and think, 'What does S&T do?' [science and technology] do we have a future? Now, how much overlap is there in some of these functions? So if you have a limited number of resources, it helps you figure out which ones you need to do to fill them up. [capability] gap. ”
The new fusion center will be a continuation of the service's Rapid Capabilities Office, which was established in 2018, Lightfoot and other officials said. The center's initial focus will be on counter-unmanned aircraft systems technology.
The Marine Corps and most other militaries rely on RCOs with the expectation that these offices will have acquisition freedom to quickly develop and bring new useful technologies into service on a faster schedule than mainstream acquisition offices. was established.
To some extent, that goal has been achieved.
Kevin Murray, chief technology officer for the Marine Corps Capability Development Directorate, said that despite rapidly developing capabilities, many are withering in what the Pentagon's acquisition community calls the “valley of death.” said. The “valley of death” refers to the acquisition impasse between development and full-scale production that new technologies often encounter. The technology is convenient and readily available, but no one is ready to shell out money and start buying it. The masses.
“We took a step back and rethought the RCO,” he said. “Instead of really focusing on building new things and building on them, we realized that…we needed to build an intermediary organization that could transition this incredible capability. there is. [research and development community] There are billions of dollars circulating every year, and we weren't making the most of it. ”
The center's focus on counter-UAS technology comes in response to the proliferation of drones on battlefields in both Ukraine and the Middle East. Breaking Defense announced on Monday that the company is actively evaluating proposals to industry to help defend its facilities around the world, and that Parsons and the U.S. subsidiary of Israel's Rafael have partnered to create a It was reported that Iron Dome proposed anti-UAS technology directly.
