On the front lines of innovation at Modern Day Marine: Weapons and Warfare

Hello and welcome to another edition of Weapons and Warfare from Straight Arrow News. I'm your

host, Ryan Robertson, and we are back on the road and back in Washington, D.C. for Modern Day Marine

2025, the Marine Corps' annual gathering of leadership and industry partners. Just ahead

on this week's episode, we hear from the Acting Chief of Naval Operations, as well as the Commandant

of the Marine Corps as they continue to pave the way for their comprehensive modernization effort

known as force design. For our weapon of the week, we visit with TRD Singapore, a player in the

counter UAS game, to see what they're working on to eliminate the drone threat now facing troops

across the globe. And in our comms check, we go one-on-one with BAE Systems to get an update on

their amphibious combat vehicle, the ACV-30, nearly a year after being fielded to Marines in Japan

But first, some headlines you may have missed. Say so long to the M-10 Booker, the tracked armored vehicle developed by General Dynamics

Land Systems for the U.S. Army, was among the notable cuts in a sweeping directive from Secretary

of Defense Pete Hegseth. In 2022, the Army awarded a $1.14 billion contract to General

dynamics for the production and fielding of up to 96 bookers, with a total of 504 expected by 2035

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll explained the decision came down to a few key issues, notably the high

cost, a tricky maintenance contract, and the vehicle's weight, tipping the scales at a hefty

38 tons. The Army has already received around 80 of the M10s. Now, their future is up in the air

They might end up with armored units sold to other countries or put into storage. Also

apparently getting the axe the Army's robotic combat vehicle. In March, there were indications

that the service would award the RCV contract to Textron for the Ripsaw M3. That now appears

unlikely in light of Hegseth's plans for a comprehensive overhaul, which will involve merging

or closing headquarters, retiring outdated vehicles and aircraft, cutting up to 1,000

headquarters staff at the Pentagon, and reallocating personnel to field units. One program of record that looks safe among the changes being made is Red Cat's Teal System

featuring their Black Widow drone as the Army's next-generation small unmanned aerial system

Red Cat, an American drone technology firm, was selected by the Army's short-range reconnaissance

program to equip platoons with portable drone capabilities to enhance situational awareness

Well, what's great about the Black Widow is that it was specifically designed for the frontline warfighter. We worked along with the Army to fold their feedback into the design of the drone

So it's very easy to use. We have a 35-minute flight time, 5-mile, 8-kilometer range

It has a Qualcomm RB5 chip in it, so very fast processing. Teledyne FLIR Hadron 640R Plus camera system in it

both daytime, nighttime camera, 640 by 512 thermal camera, and a 64-megamixel daytime camera

We caught up with Red Cat's vice president of marketing, Stan Nowak, at Modern Day Marine

He tells us the next phase of the project is the production contract

which will determine the number of drones for the initial delivery before moving to full rate production in the fall

You can mark another milestone in the Air Force's mission to settle on a builder for its first collaborative combat aircraft

According to a press release, ground testing is underway for the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A

built by General Atomics and Anderil, respectively. It's a development that has Air Force Chief of Staff General David Alvin so fired up

he took to social media to share his enthusiasm, posting, Ground testing is officially underway for our collaborative combat aircraft program

This is a huge milestone and another step toward first flight and rapid delivery to our warfighters

These unmanned fighters are going to be badass. early testing will focus on propulsion systems avionics autonomy integration and ground control

interfaces alvin also announcing the department of the air force selected beale air force base

in california as the preferred location to host a cca aircraft readiness unit

the united states marine corps like its fellow service branches is in the midst of a big modernization initiative called Force Design Launched in 2019 this effort is all about getting ready for future conflicts especially in the Indo region

The goal? To turn the Marine Corps into a lighter, more agile, and tech-savvy force that can operate effectively in challenging environments

So, nearly six years in, how close is the Corps to achieving its goal

To find out, we sat in on a session with General Eric Smith, the Commandant of the Marine Corps

and Admiral James Kilby, the Acting Chief of Naval Operations. Right, well, good morning

Try that again. Good morning. There we go. Yeah, there we go. There's a Marine

It should probably come as no surprise the 39th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps is all business

when it comes to the future of the Marines. In a 30-minute session that started with a keynote speech before shifting gears for some Q&A, General Eric Smith covered a wide range of priorities for the branch

Like the Barracks 2030 Initiative, a $5 billion, five-year plan to upgrade facilities, and the role of autonomous systems in future operations

Oh yeah, that's real sexy. Smith emphasized the opportunities at hand for the 200,000 plus Marines serving on active duty and in the reserves

Every generation of Marines has added a new page to the playbook, and now it's our turn

Force design, stand-in forces, long-range precision fires, maritime denial, and control from the shore

These aren't experiments. They're our contribution to the next fight. And like every era before us, they're built on lessons learned by Marines in conflict

One specific priority for Smith is returning to a 3.0 ARG-MU. For the non-Marines watching, that's an amphibious ready group slash Marine expeditionary unit

Smith said ARG-MUs are like Swiss Army knives, good for all sorts of things

The 3.0 is our North Star. A Mew embarked on a three-ship amphibious ready group is the most versatile, flexible, and lethal global response force the United States has to offer

It doesn't require access, basing, and overflight. It gives the nation's leaders options

We can park ourselves 12 miles off anybody's coast and stay there for as long as we damn well please

So why is the 3.0 more aspirational than actionable right now? Smith says it's a lack of amphibious warships

We don't have enough that are ready. We're working with the Navy to fix that

But I need you to understand this is about more than ships

It's about deterrence and denial. It's about making sure Marines are in position when the next fight comes

Smith went on to talk about a range of issues facing his branch

from force design to recruiting and retention and everything in between. And while he acknowledged there are no sure paths or easy answers

he remains optimistic about the end result. This is going to take time

We're going to do it the right way, not the fast way, just like Marines always do

So yes, the tools are changing. The formations are changing. The fight itself is changing

But what never changes is who we are. We are Marines. We are a warfighting organization, disciplined, lethal, and ready

About 90 minutes after General Smith wrapped, the acting chief of naval operations, Admiral James Kilby, took to the stage

again covering a lot of topics but hitting on some major themes

Like how the Navy is honing in on sea control, pointing out they're moving from a more relaxed environment to one that's much more contested

That means I have to have control of that sea space, all domains from air, space, surface, subsurface

to conduct from that sanctuary for however long a time I need it, those effects I need to bring to shore

So it's not like we're getting away from power projection, but we are emphasizing sea control and buying the kit and capability in concert with the Marine Corps

to achieve that level of sanctuary, to conduct that power projection. With an eye clearly set on the future, Kilby laid out seven priorities for 2027

Making sure America's maritime forces are at 80% combat surge readiness, adapting to the use of autonomous systems, enhancing maritime operations centers

improving recruitment, upgrading quality of life, building up warfighter skills, and restoring his branch's infrastructure

Kilby also touched on the challenges the Navy and Marines are facing with maintaining amphibious ships and their need to get the availability rates up So I be frank with you We owe you a three ARG I owe you a three ARG that ready to embark Marines

and conduct a training cycle and deploy on schedule. I did not meet that requirement with the Boxer ARG or the Wasp ARG

And I'm focused on meeting that requirement to make sure we move forward

And even though he didn't exactly echo the thoughts of former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall

China, China, China, he did emphasize the importance of blending Marine Corps capabilities into Navy operations

especially in the Western Pacific. We are responding to a call from our adversary, China, who said

we want to be ready in 2027, therefore the United States Navy

and I would argue our military must be ready in 2027 across all our platforms to bring those

effects to bear. To wrap things up, he highlighted how crucial it is for the Navy and Marine Corps

to continue working together. How do we support the Marine Corps when they want to demonstrate

the ability and to show the advantage of an expeditionary advanced base that I can get up

and move and reposition and bring those effects to bear? That's work I think we need to do together

Something Kilby says the Marine Corps and Navy have done for 250 years, adding they owe it to the country to continue to work side by side

Serving you clarity through context, our mission at SAN is to deliver the news straight down the middle

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And get straight facts anytime at SAN.com. For a weapon of the week this week, we're going to take our inspiration from a recent event in the headlines

If you watched any coverage of the Pope's funeral, you probably saw some people walking around with some pieces of equipment that looked like this

It's an anti-drone rifle. And here to talk a little bit more about this anti-drone rifle is Denise Ong with TRD Singapore

Denise, tell me about it. Sure, Ryan. So this is our Orion H10

So 10 represents the amount of frequency bands we have. It is the most advanced drone jammer gun in the market

It's also, of course, our latest product. So how this works, essentially, is that it disrupts the connection between the remote control and the drone

so that the drone will land, hover, or return to home so that it doesn't disrupt any events

It doesn't cause any damage. It doesn't risk any lives to civilians

So we've actually spent a lot of effort iterating and making sure that this drone gun can cover all kinds of drones

not just DJI drones, not just commercial drones, but DIY, FPV, and even some military-grade drones

And that's why the operating on 10 different frequencies is so important, because those drones operate on different frequencies, correct

Exactly, exactly. A lot of competitors we've seen tend to focus on certain kind of aspects of drones

Sometimes some markets have just commercial drones. But for us, we know that because our gun has been in a lot of different countries

we know that there are a lot of different kinds of drones that people deal with. So we want to make sure that our gun can be applied to any situation

be it any civilian kind of disruptions or even war-based situations. So if I'm deployed with this thing, I mean, am I going to be exhausted at the end of the day

I mean, how much does this thing weigh? So this weighs about 7 kilograms, and I think it's not that heavy, but it is pretty sturdy

some Marines have actually carried it with one hand that's really impressive so if you see here

how this works is it looks exactly like this you see a drone you shoot it take it down good to go

you can carry it if you want so just like a normal normal rifle essentially exactly not exactly the Rambo look but you know

in 2025 maybe Rambo would be carrying something like this you said you're in 20 different countries

25 different countries? Yeah, so we're in over 35 different countries. 35, okay. Yeah, so all over

the world, be it Middle East, Southeast Asia, where we're from, we've also sold these guns to

the Canadian DOD. They're having, the troops in Latvia are having our guns right now as we speak

All right. What's next for, I know you said you update this thing every six months or so. I mean

what's next for the Orion? So when it comes to counter drones and drones, we have to keep a

close eye on how drones are being developed. We can't develop any systems just in a vacuum and

not thinking about it or just thinking about all the most sophisticated sexy looking thing we want to make sure we have really close boots on the ground

just to make sure that as drones develop we do as well in tandem with what

they're doing so as drones have certain developments such as anti-jamming modules

and stuff like that we want to make sure that we can do other kinds of soft kills so that it actually not only just RF based jamming but spoofing as well GPS spoofing so I can really say what our next product will be although I know which direction it going in But I will say that we definitely developing it to make sure that it not just one kind of method that we relying on

and we're having a layered defense for any kind of situation. All right. Well, Denise, when you are ready to share those secrets, please reach back out to us in the meantime

Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. so about a year ago the united states marine corps took the amphibious combat vehicle from

BAE systems and used it in forward deployed operations for the first time so for our comps

check this week we thought hey let's check in with BAE systems and find out what they learned

about the marine corps first deployment of their vehicle so joining me now is phil hahn with BAE

phil thank you so much pleasure ryan so last year went out for the first time forward deployed

operations. It's an amazing vehicle. What did you guys learn? Yeah, we're really proud of this

deployment that the Marine Corps was able to complete. One of the prouder achievements is

we were able to get all 12 vehicles that were deployed to swim back to shore and return back

to base, right? Huge monumental milestone for us and the program and the ACV in general. A couple

of the things that they were able to learn was being able to maintain, operate, and use the ACVs

in a very limited resource-available environment and to better understand the vehicle, how to operate it, how to forward deploy it

and use it to its maximum capabilities that we designed it for

And that's all part of the Marine Corps' Force Design 2030 aspirational goal

is to be able to operate in these forward zones where there's not a lot of resupply

very little resource infrastructure. But like you said, the Marines were able to prove the vehicle could work

in these expeditionary roles. Correct. The Marine Corps is able to complete several exercises across

multiple nations. Those exercises went well, right? The vehicle performed as it should

and met its requirements and its capabilities, and they were able to bring it back and use it

well. Lessons learned, feedback, any surprises from the Corps that you were able to get out of it

Yeah, so one of the big lessons we learned is the Marines were able to get a better sense of

the vehicle and its operational states. We have done an enormous amount of testing on these vehicles

and we'll understand the vehicle, but also each vehicle kind of has its personalities, right

So understanding what the ticks and ties are to kind of indicate what may be conditioning from the vehicle

For example, if there is something coming from the engine compartment, right, what does that lead to, right

What is that asymptomatic for, and how can we be proactive in ramming any issues before it becomes larger

So that was a huge critical lesson that we will learn from that deployment

Education makes us all better, right? It does. All right. Thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate your time

My pleasure. All right. That's all the time we have for this week's Comms Check. All opinions expressed in this segment are solely the opinions of the contributors

All right, folks, that's going to do it for us this week on Weapons and Warfare. Of course, we got way more stories from Modern Day Marine than we can fit into just one episode

So be sure to keep watching in the days, weeks, and months ahead as we roll those stories out

Plus, next week we're going to Soft Week down in Tampa, about 900 miles south of here

And honestly, guys, if you like stories like this, keep it tuned because we have you covered

And to make sure you don't miss anything, be sure to download the Straight Arrow News app today

and like and subscribe to all of our social media channels. So for my wrap this week, I'm going to spend some time talking about the importance of finding focus

I'm a journalist. I write a lot of scripts. Another way of saying that is I tell a lot of stories

And one of the things I learned very early in my career is good stories have a tight focus

They don't waste time on unimportant details that don't help you win the mission

And while obviously not the exact same, I noticed that same sort of attitude on display at this year's Modern Day Marine event

These men and women are laser focused on the task at hand, becoming better Marines

Whether that's through talking to the service's top brass, participating in hands-on training with new and emerging technologies

or learning how their individual parts play into the wider picture, the Marines we met know that focusing on what matters most is the best way to accomplish the mission

Because here's the hard truth. If the U.S. finds itself in a conflict with a near-peer adversary like China or Russia

the Marines will likely be the first in the fight. they don't have time for distractions. Lose their focus and people get hurt or worse. For senior

producer Brett Baker, video editor Brian Spencer, graphics artist Dakota Patio, and photographer

Dickon Mager, I'm Ryan Robertson, Straight Arrow News, signing off