Drones could be part of an infantry platoon's standard kit. We're not there yet.
Every Marine a rifleman drone operator?
At the Marine Corps Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, a foundational philosophy is that every Marine is first and foremost a rifleman, said Col. Scott Cuomo, commanding officer of Training Command’s Weapons Training Battalion.
“So, we started there to make sure that they understood how to integrate” the training — and make every Marine a drone operator.
Let's hope that is a bit of hyperbole because I have concerns about that path. Infantry close with and destroys the enemy. Pushing small drones down too far isn't the way to go right now. Interesting enough, that essay got a lot of hits the day before one Army brigade working on that issue announced it had agreed with my assessment.
But if fire-and-forget small drones become small enough to be launched from infantry 40mm grenade launchers or hang from a soldier's webbing in place of a fragmentation grenade, I think we can say small drones support an infantry role of closing with and destroying the enemy rather than interfere.
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NOTE: Photo from the article.
