11

Reinvigorating Squad Level Units

for U.S. Marine Corps Dismounted

Combat Capabilities

Mark Richter

Director, Marine Expeditionary Rifle Squad

Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico VA

13 March 2017

Brief for Future Soldier Technology 2017

22

• Manage the Marine Rifle Squad as a System. Revised MERS Initial Capability Document approved 13 Aug 2015.

• Coordinate the integration and modernization of everything worn, carried, used, or consumed by the rifle squad including integration of equipped Marines in mobility platforms.

• Provide the ability to conduct systems engineering, human factors, integration assessments, and spiral development in a reduced time cycle by operating the Gruntworks Squad Integration Facility as a Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) provided resource.

MERS Mission

33

Operating Concept

• What makes MERS and Gruntworks effective is the Triad:

The MERS Team– Sponsor: Infantry Advocate from DC, PP&O

– Requirements: MERS Capability Integration Officer, DC, CD&I

– Acquisition Office: MERS, MCSC

– Other Stakeholders

• MERS is aligned within MCSC under the Chief Engineer of the Marine Corps:– Systems Engineering, Human Factors, and Interoperability

focused

– Responsible for Human Systems Integration (HSI) across the Command

– Support for the Programs - works with the programs to make their products better and an integrated solution

• Actively engage many of the other soldier modernization programs (Joint, International) to leverage technology opportunities and ensure coalition interoperability.

44

MERS FY17 Goals

and Objectives

• Establish and fund Partnership Intermediary Agreement

(PIA) in order to support Commander’s Intent for

Innovation focused primarily on the Infantry community.

• Mobility assessments utilizing Marine Corps Load Effects

Assessment Program (MC-LEAP) in Okinawa and

CONUS.

• Execute integration projects and tasks as required in

order to support requirements and programs. Identify

priority projects through the CD&I Infantry Working

Group.

• Provide and improve Gruntworks as a capability for the

Command and the Marine Corps.

• Provide Human Systems Integration and Human

Research Protection Program expertise to the

Command.

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MERS FY17 Tasks

and Actions

• Conduct mobility metric assessments of equipment and equipment

configurations and develop designs that improve mobility.

• Conduct integration of infantry squad and days of supply into mobility

platforms to include seating and seat restraint systems. Conduct Design

Tight initiative and support vehicle loadout trials.

• Develop a USMC Anthropometry database, use Anthropometry to support

vehicle platforms, and identify MOS discriminators. Develop strength

database relative to gender and anthropometry. Smart Adaptations.

• Determine successful candidate technologies for usability assessments

from Infantry Equipping Challenge and evaluate.

• Human Systems Integration reviews with programs and collaborate on

solution optimization.

• Validate new instrumentation received into the trial processes and develop

trial plans. Jungle thermal strain study.

• CD&I Infantry Working Group Charter influence on PIA initiatives.

• Collaborate with internal and external organizations on innovation efforts.

• Work with and leverage similar organizations- SOFWERX, Diggerworks,

WinSite, and other similar establishments.

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• Establish a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) for the Command in order to provide a mechanism to rapidly engage industry and academia to include the ability to rapidly acquire COTS items in small quantities for evaluation and integration.

• Diversify the capabilities within the Gruntworks Squad Integration Facility by using a PIA as a technology scouting and market research mechanism. Utilize Gruntworks as the core location for engaging industry and leveraging the PIA as the mechanism for rapid response. The Command’s own PIA will allow us to place Collaborative Project Orders and will reduce the cycle time and improve responsiveness.

• Authority to execute PIAs is in SecNavInst 5700.17 and the responsibility for Science and Technology development and readiness is in SecNavInst 5400.15C (see page 6 para C). PIAs are established under 15 USC 3715.

Innovation and

Technology

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• Third Battalion Fifth Marines has been designated as the experimentation unit in order to determine the optimal size rifle squad with technology insertions that have been provided to the Battalion. – The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab is leading the

experimentation and analysis process.

– Each of the three Rifle Companies have a unique squad size and a variety of technologies to utilize during pre-deployment training and during deployment.

– 10 Marine squad, 12 Marine squad and 14 Marine squad sizes are in the experiment. The current rifle squad size is 13 Marines

– Currently, the battalion’s initial recommendation is for a 15 man squad. This is based upon the insertion of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS), ground robotics, small unit command and control systems, information technologies, and a variety of other technologies. Rationale is manpower is required to effectively operate and exploit the technologies while maintaining effective combat power and preventing cognitive burden on small unit leaders.

– Assistant Squad Leader or Assistant to the Squad Leader?

Experimentation

88

• Third Battalion Fifth Marines will deploy as the Ground Combat Element of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). – This provides an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of

the rifle squad in a Naval expeditionary environment

– Major exercises provide the environment to assess the advantages and disadvantages that new technologies bring to the rifle squad. It allows the Marines the opportunity to improvise how they can utilize the technology for a tactical advantage.

– Data collection and assessments will provide the information required for analysis and recommendations

– In 2017 it is anticipated that a final decision will be made on the size and composition of the Marine Rifle Squad.

– Integration of new technologies to the Marines will be a critical step in order to achieve success. Ergonomics, load carriage, accessibility, usability, training, and human performance will all be critical factors for material solutions.

– This is actually the beginning as the Marine Operating Concept is injected into the Marine Rifle Squad.

Experimentation

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Marine Operating

Concept

5 Critical Task

and Issue Areas

1. Integrate the Naval

force to fight at and

from the sea.

2. Evolve the

MAGTF.

3. Operate with

resilience in a

contested network

environment.

4. Enhance our ability

to maneuver.

5. Exploit the

competency of the

individual Marine.

All five areas apply to

the Marine Rifle Squad!

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Marine Operating

Concept

Exploit the Competence of the

Individual MarineThe Marine Corps is a personnel-centric military

organization. As such, we must ensure our

ability to exploit our asymmetric advantage: the

U.S. Marine. We must modernize our personnel

policies in order to seek high-quality human

capital and better train and educate Marines

for the integrated naval force. Training and

education must be focused on developing

Marines for complexity and developing

leaders at every echelon. We must continue

our efforts towards cultural learning and

emphasize quality in leadership positions.

This also means managing talent to improve

the return on this training and education

investment in terms of managing individual

talent across the Total Force regardless of MOS

and improving retention. Even as we pursue

greater networking of the force, we must resist

the temptation to use the connectivity to

centralize decision-making, and in so doing

undercut our ability to take full advantage of the

qualified, trained, experienced, and capable

Marine.

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Marine Operating

Concept

Key Drivers of ChangeComplex Terrain- Physical, informational,

and human aspects of conflict are adding

significant complexity and compression to

the “three-block war”.

Technology Proliferation- Proliferation

across information, S&T, cyber, EW,

automation, and Anti Access/Area Denial

(A2AD) at a pace far faster than our military

acquisition.

Information as a Weapon- We must vie for

the sentiment of the society local to the

conflict and simultaneously the opinion of the

world at large.

Battle of Signatures- Being detected is to

be targeted….we must raise and detect

enemy signatures, assign meaning, and take

action first.

Contested Maritime Domain- Previously

unmatched sea control ….now air, surface,

and subsurface U.S. naval capabilities are

being contested.

The Problem: The Marine Corps is not

organized, trained and equipped to meet the

demands of a future operating environment.

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Marine Operating

Concept

The 21st century MAGTF conducts maneuver warfare in the physical and

cognitive dimensions of conflict to generate and exploit psychological,

technological, temporal, and spatial advantages over the adversary. The 21st

century MAGTF executes maneuver warfare through a combined arms

approach that embraces information warfare as indispensable for achieving

complementary effects across five domains – air, land, sea, space, and

cyberspace. The 21st century MAGTF avoids linear, sequential, and phased

approaches to operations and blends maneuver warfare and combined arms

to generate the combat power needed for simultaneity of action in its full range

of missions. The 21st century MAGTF operates and fights at sea, from the

sea, and ashore as an integrated part of the Naval force and the larger

Combined/Joint force.

1313

• Facilitating the Marine Operating Concept into the Marine Rifle Squad will require novel methods for integration and assessments at the Gruntworks Squad Integration Facility. It requires a coordinated effort reliant on the Infantry Advocate, Requirements, Acquisition, and other stakeholders.– Policies supporting integration in the Requirements Generation

Phase of new initiatives.

– Instrumentation investments and innovative methodologies to support Acquisition decision making.

– Evaluations utilizing the right user populations

– Training burden assessments for new technologies

– Resourcing and prioritizing solutions

– Reduce the cycle time from concept to fielding by providing solid information for better informed requirements attributes and providing disciplined systems engineering and human systems integration in the acquisition process.

Marine Expeditionary

Rifle Squad

1414

• The Infantry Working Group– Provide a forum to share lessons learned, after action reports, intelligence reports,

injury data, research and development findings, materiel developments, technologies, and test methodologies among all key organizations involved in infantry capabilities development.

– Develop sound, achievable requirements defined in terms of operational capabilities and gaps, and link these requirements to the Marine Expeditionary Rifle Squad Initial Capabilities Document (ICD) dated 13 August 2015.

– Leverage the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity to reassess current and future threats.

– Review the status of materiel and non-materiel solutions currently planned and/or underway to fulfill approved capability gaps. Identify the status of technology initiatives in all stages of development as potential fulfillment of approved capability gaps.

– Develop a Marine Expeditionary Rifle Squad roadmap that captures the non-materiel and materiel efforts focused on the squad and individual infantry military occupational specialties (MOS) across DOTmLPF-P through the Future Years Defense Program.

– Establish priorities and forward capability gaps for inclusion in the Marine Corps Gap List beginning with Program Objective Memorandum - 19 (POM-19).

– Advise Commandant of the Marine Corps, Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration, and other Marine Corps senior leaders on infantry modernization initiatives that can be implemented immediately to improve current warfighting capabilities and over the longer term to support Marine Corps Force 2025 goals and the Marine Corps Operating Concept.

Infantry Working Group

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• Core Members– Fires and Maneuver Integration Division (FMID), Capabilities Development

Directorate (CDD), Combat Development and Integration, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps

– Ground Combat Element (POG)-30, Plans, Policies, and Operations (PP&O), Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps

– Program Manager, Infantry Weapon Systems (IWS), Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC)

– Director, Marine Expeditionary Rifle Squad (MERS), MCSC

– Training and Education Command (TECOM), CD&I

– Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Activity (MCOTEA)

• Other Members– Program Managers (PM), Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) / Installations

and Logistics (I&L) / Marine Corps Forces Command (MARFORCOM) / Marine Corps Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC) / Marine Corps Logistics Command (MARCORLOGCOM) / Integration Divisions (ID), CDD, CD&I / Operations Analysis Division (OAD), CD&I / Futures, CD&I (MCWL) / Marine Corps Intelligence Activity (MCIA) / Expeditionary Energy Office (E2O), Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps / Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) / Code 30, Office of Naval Research (ONR) / Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) / Marine Corps Forces Reserve (MARFORRES) / Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCoE), U.S. Army / Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier, U.S. Army / Defense Logistics Agency, (Troop Support and Marine Team) / Prepositioning Programs Section (POE-40), Expeditionary Policies Branch (POE), PP&O, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps / G-8, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC)

Infantry Working Group

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• 2. Background. Reference (a) “The MERS ICD”,

paragraph 7.3(1) requires the establishment of a mobility

metric. Mobility, as it pertains to requirements for the

individual Marine with a standard combat load, is defined

as the relative ability to move efficiently and to effectively

accomplish combat related tasks while wearing and

carrying assigned weapons and mission essential

equipment. Reference (a), paragraph 7.3(1) also

identifies an integration requirement for all systems

fielded to the infantry to reduce the weight, bulk, and

stiffness of issued weapons and equipment, thus

improving individual Marine mobility. Reference (a),

paragraph 7.3(3) requires the development of thermal

strain performance parameters to also be considered

when developing items to be worn next to the body.

Marine Mobility Policy

1717

• 7.3. (U) Materiel Recommendations

• Required System Integration to Close Material Gaps. Inherent to all materiel

development solutions for the Rifle Squad is a materiel solutions integration

requirement for existing systems at the squad level. To this end, the Infantry CIO

and Marine Corps System Command must:

• (1) Establish a mobility metric for equipment/weapons development worn/carried by

dismounted forces through integration testing with the MERS program;

• (2) Conduct integration testing on all fielded equipment/weapons worn/carried by

dismounted forces and forecasted to remain in the inventory for the foreseeable

future to investigate potential equipment modifications to improve overall mobility in

accordance with the established mobility metrics;

• (3) Develop thermal strain performance parameters to be considered during

development or modification of all future equipment worn next to the body;

• (4) Develop energy consumption / harvesting / distribution performance parameters

for use in future powered equipment / weapon development to ensure that

appropriate trade-offs are made when powered systems are worn / carried and

subsequently affect dismounted mobility;

• (5) Conduct integration testing with all mobility platforms employed by infantry

forces to ensure mobility platforms design personnel carriage systems facilitate

timely debarkation/embarkation and account for combat equipment space

constraints.

Marine Mobility Policy

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• 3. Action. Effective immediately, all new Capability Development

Documents (CDDs), Capability Production Documents (CPDs),

Capability Requirement Change (CRC) and updates to existing

CDDs and CPDs for weapons and combat equipment that is to be

worn or carried by the individual Marine shall include a mobility

attribute. The mobility attribute may be designated a Key

Performance Parameter (KPP) / Key System Attribute (KSA), or

Additional Performance Attribute (for a CRC), as appropriate for

the system. There is no requirement to update previous

documents unless they are undergoing changes or updates. The

Marine Corps Load Effects Assessment Program (MC-LEAP) will

be used to evaluate the mobility attribute, per enclosure (1). The

results of the MC-LEAP evaluation characterizing the equipment’s

impact on mobility will be forwarded to Director, CDD for

consideration.

Marine Mobility Policy

1919

• The Marine Rifle Squad is evolving quickly. Much more going on than a 30 minute presentation allows.

• Gruntworks, the Partnership Intermediary Agreement, and Infantry Working Group will be key elements as the Squad modernizes with the Marine Operating Concept.

• The modernization of our requirements, policies, processes, instrumentation, and capabilities have created a solid foundation for modernizing the rifle squad

• We are enhancing our ability to engage industry and academia by this summer. Contact and engage us.

• We are open to continuing collaboration with our international partners.

• If there are questions since I am not there in person, please send an email to mark.richter@usmc.mil and I will try to answer it.

• Enjoy the conference!

Summary

2020

MC-LEAP -

Questions?