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The U.S. Marine Corps has taken a decisive step toward institutionalizing drone warfare with its first official tactical handbook for small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). The 90-page Small UAS/Counter-small UAS Integration Handbook, published in June, marks a strategic pivot acknowledging drones as core battlefield weapons rather than niche tools. Developed by 1st Marine Division Schools, the document standardizes procedures for infantry, reconnaissance, and aviation units deploying and defending against attack drones.

From Ad Hoc to Doctrine

The manual crystallizes years of battlefield experimentation, including hard-won insights from Ukraine's drone operations. Before this, Marine units relied on informal tactics—like a 2020 crowdsourced effort to evade drone surveillance. Now, the Corps establishes unified protocols covering:

  • Terminology standardization: Drone holding areas named after women, battle positions after animals (starting with snakes), and loitering zones after cigarette brands
  • Tactical schematics: Visual guides for drone strikes in varied combat formations
  • Airspace deconfliction: Concepts like 'hot walls' and 'pizza slices' defining operational boundaries
  • Camouflage/evasion: Formal heat-signature masking and visual concealment techniques
  • Strike communication: Template briefings for coordinated attacks

"These are not aircraft," emphasized Samuel Bendett, a military drone advisor. "These are cheaper, attritable tactical systems that should be available to every military formation."

The Attack Drone Revolution

The handbook supports the Corps' new Attack Drone Teams—specialized units developing offensive drone capabilities. This aligns with the Pentagon's push for "UAS dominance by 2027," a radical departure from prior focus on surveillance and logistics. Crucially, the guide frames drone operations as team endeavors, requiring coordinated roles in communications, targeting, and exploitation regardless of a unit's primary function.

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Marines train with drone systems like the SkyRaider, now covered under standardized tactics (Cpl. Zachariah Ferraro/Marine Corps)

Racing Against Adversaries

The manual explicitly acknowledges an urgent technological arms race, with authors urging Marines to "consider this handbook a baton—now take it, and run with it!" Bendett notes the psychological shift: Drones are no longer abstract threats but immediate dangers "two or three klicks away" requiring ingrained reflexes. While gaps remain (including dedicated chapters on one-way attack drones and weaponeering), this handbook represents the military's most concerted effort to codify drone warfare at the tactical level—a necessity as peer adversaries like China accelerate their own programs.

Source: Marine Corps Times