Changing Technology Adds Risk, Uncertainty to Modern Warfare
Gen. David Berger has been the Marine Corps commandant since 2019, after being with the institution for almost four decades. His training as a young Marine in uniform happened at a time when the former Soviet Union was a global threat.
“In most of our training now, both sides are going to have a ton of little drones. We have to get comfortable operating in that environment,” Gen. Berger said. “You have to figure out how to operate in that environment, and we are doing that now, in every single training environment.”
The general described how his force would have panicked five years ago upon seeing a small device posing a threat from above. “Marines are more aware of it, know how to operate and camouflage,” Gen. Berger added.
The general spoke to Defense Writers Group journalists about the lessons from the war in Ukraine and how, again in his career, technology disrupts the battlefield. As a result, the document for the future of the Corps, Force Design 2030, needs constant revisiting, the general explained.
“We have to have enough mobility that we can relocate a unit pretty often,” said Gen. Berger. “Some of us learned 30 years ago camouflage, decoys, deception; what we didn’t worry so much about 30 years ago was every time you press a button, [now] you’re turning yourself in.”
The general offered a cellular phone as an example, a device every service member has and operates as part of their lives. Now, these must be used with extreme caution in a hostile environment.
“The electronic signature management is huge. Signals intelligence was pushed down to a much lower level,” Gen. Berger said.
Sharing tactical-level intelligence in real time with allies has changed to a level of openness that was unknown before. “We were always very worried of doing that, for giving away trade secrets or sources,” Gen. Berger said. “We’re making decisions now, on sharing with our allies and partners. That’s a direct derivative of the National Defense Strategy, but we were always brought up hearing ‘don’t share that intel.’ We’re in a different place intel-sharing than we were.”
Every time you press a button, you're turning yourself in.
The importance of sharing real-time data with allies and friendly actors is a result of a fast-moving operating environment and utilizing shorter opportunity windows.
“What we have really learned in the last six months is the ability to collect and quickly close a kill chain or a kill web fast,” Gen. Berger explained. “I think you’ll see us focus really heavily in the [intelligence] collection part, the reconnaissance part and trying to deny the adversary the ability to collect against the joint force,” Gen. Berger added.
In terms of logistics, the commandant explained the importance of having shorter chains using allies and their resources.
“Our units have to be much more self-sustaining than we were in Afghanistan, where we could supply them the chow, the water, the fuel, everything else; now, we are training them to be self-sustaining,” Gen. Berger said.
