The Marine Corps new Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle to Likely Launch Attack Drones, Fire Lasers & Hunt Enemies From Ship-to-Shore

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

The Marine Corps new Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle will likely fire lasers and hunt enemies from ship-to-shore in support of amphibious attacks by incorporating new levels of mobile power launching loitering attack drones to surveil and possibly destroy enemy targets both inland and at sea.

Marine Corps Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle 

The service is now evaluating two industry ARV prototypes from Textron and General Dynamics Land Systems with a mind to discerning which one is best suited to meet Marine Corps warfare requirements moving into the future. 

The GDLS offering is an attempt to align with future Marine Corps needs by launching reconnaissance and attack drones from its vehicle to prepare the platform for manned-unmanned teaming, an ability to extend its surveillance reach even deeper into highly dangerous enemy territory. 

GDLS has launched drones from an ARV demonstrator and is now refining its prototype vehicle for delivery to the Marine Corps. The idea is to multiply sensor and attack nodes on a dispersed battlefield and potentially connect drones to other drones, manned vehicles and even aircraft and surface ships, GDLS developers said.

This manned-unmanned teaming concept of operation, now largely being pursued, tested and implemented across the military services, is fundamental to the Marine Corps’ future warfare vision outlined in the services Force Design 2030 document. 

Force Design 2030

The document calls for the elimination of tanks and other heavy platforms in favor of faster, lighter weight, more deployable and amphibious weapons able to exact a measure of lethality without needing the time-consuming, cumbersome and difficult task of deploying heavy armor. Part of the rationale, as explained in the document, is based to some extent upon the fighting in Ukraine where a dispersed, fast-moving group of fighters armed with anti-armor weapons were able to prevail in ambushes and hit-and-run attacks against heavy armor. Part of this is massively enabled by small vehicle or hand-launched surveillance drones in position to identify approaching heavy enemy forces.

“As a “stand-in” force of the future, the Marine Corps requires a family of UAS capabilities. We need to transition from our current UAS platforms to capabilities that can operate from ship, from shore, and be able to employ both collection and lethal payloads. These future capabilities must be expeditionary and fully compatible with Navy platforms and command and control networks,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger writes in the Marine Corps Force Design 2030 Document.