On Wednesday, the Marines released Ground Combat Element 2040, a blueprint for transforming the land force component of the Marine Air Ground Task Force or MAGTF, the central formation that the Corps organizes around for a battle. A MAGTF moves and fights with its owns ground, aviation, and logistics units under a single commander.

As the heart of the 40 page document, which includes many pictures of Marines in various combat roles, is a vision for how the basic elements of infantry squads and platoons will be equipped on battlefields swarming with drones.

“The widespread use of drones underscores the need for effective organic protective measures across the [Ground Combat Element], down to the squad level,” the planning document says.”The evolving drone threat presents the most significant risk to ground maneuver, requiring layered active and passive counter-[unmanned aircraft systems] capabilities to retain the initiative.” 

The Marine Corps is already in the process of fielding defenses against “inexpensive, lethal one-way attack drones” to small units, said Lt. Gen. Jay M. Bargeron, deputy commandant for plans, policies, and operations.

“The ability for our lowest echelon units – squad, platoon, company – to defend themselves against these one-way attack systems is really maybe one of the biggest holes in our swing,” Bargeron told reporters on Wednesday. “So we’re working hard on that.”

So far this year, the Marine Corps has fielded more than 80 sets of what it calls the “organic counter small UAS system,” which allows squads to jam and destroy small drones, Corps officials said.

Bargeron mentioned that the Marine Corps has also purchased 400,000 anti-drone rounds for Marines’ M4 carbine and M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles. Designed specifically to be used against small drones, the ammunition separates into five distinct projectiles after being fired.

“I think that will change how we do counter small [unmanned aircraft systems] at the small unit level,” Bargeron said.

When a rifle squad can strike at artillery range

He also said that he had recently visited the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California, which is developing a course on the best tactics, techniques, and procedures for rifle squads to defend against small drones.

In addition to these defenses, the Marine Corps is also fielding the “Home Alone” countermeasure to detect drones from several kilometers away, Bargeron said.

“Home Alone is a Counter small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CsUAS) that is a semi-fixed site [ground-based air defense] solution that supports our layered defense structure,” said Capt. Steven Keenan, a Marine Corps spokesperson.

The Marines are also going on offense in the small drones fight. Bargeron said the Corps is in the process of fielding loitering munitions to squads that will give them the ability to strike targets up to 20 kilometers away.

“That’s something that that Marines rifle squad, platoon, company would have had to depend on artillery somewhere else, mortars somewhere else, aircraft somewhere else to talk onto the target,” Bargeron said. “I think that will be dramatic.”

Marine anti-tank missile gunners will be responsible for the loitering munitions, and there are no current plans to create a new military occupational specialty for that purpose, Corps officials said.

The post Marine Corps releases roadmap for infantry in drone-covered world appeared first on Task & Purpose.

Source: YouTube

Summary

Under this year’s influenza vaccination guidelines, the Marine Corps will continue to follow Defense Department policy, which requires flu shots for some military personnel while making them optional for most others.The Aug. 21 announcement requires vaccinations for specific groups of Marines, including…

Why It Matters

This video provides visual context for the story and helps readers quickly understand the key development from the original source.

Watch Original Video

The new annual Chemical, Biological Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) mask test requirements were recently published in official Marine Corps and Navy administrative notices, or ADMINs. The Marine Corps policy incorporates new pass-fail training compliance statuses while the Navy rules speed up the timeline for sailors to comply with the mask fit training and certification tests.

Both the Navy and Marine Corps orders note that the tests are an annual requirement under the Pentagon’s new shaving rules.

In 2025, the Department of Defense released directives mandating that troops maintain a “clean-shaven face,” which included a crackdown on long-standing religious and medical exemptions for beards. Since the adoption of Pentagon-wide policies, the Navy and Marine Corps have issued more specific guidelines like limits on shaving waivers and counseling sessions for sailors with those waivers. The Marine Corps specifically ordered troops diagnosed with severe razor bumps — medically known as pseudofolliculitis barbae — to get reevaluated. Those whose conditions preclude shaving can be kicked out of the Marine Corps.

Medical experts say pseudofolliculitis barbae disproportionately affects Black and Asian men.

The Marine Corps and Navy notices emphasize that the new training policies are designed to “reinforce grooming compliance” and to promote “safe” use of protective equipment like gas masks in the event of a potential chemical attack.

Gas masks and beards: longtime frenemies

Though troops have long been granted waivers for facial hair for both religious and medical reasons, a number of research studies have found that “facial hair can seriously degrade the performance of close-fitting masks,” though those results often vary by factors like hair length, density, and coarseness. 

According to the Marine Corps notice, proper use of a mask “requires an unobstructed seal between the facepiece and skin.” It also requires that personnel be “clean shaven at the respirator seal surface” for the test, regardless of waivers they may have.

The notice states that “at a minimum,” Marines must complete a “negative pressure seal check,” which means the mask can “maintain an airtight seal during inhalation.” Training and Education Command officials will also have units track training completion with three new categories. Marines will get “trained” or “failed” status for the test or “untrained” if they haven’t done it yet.

Sailors will have to check “mask seals with a negative pressure check,” and do equipment maintenance and inspections.

Since 2019, Marines have had to do “don and clear” training each year and complete gas chamber exercises every two years, Maj. Hector Infante, a spokesperson for Marine Corps Training and Education Command, told Task & Purpose.

Under the new requirements, active duty Marines have until Sept. 30 to complete the test or have a plan to do so, while reserve units have until the end of the year. 

The Navy order establishes timelines for units to complete the new training requirement, splitting it up into two groups. Operational units, which include deployable squadrons and commissioned vessels, have to complete gas mask training by Aug. 31. Commanders of land-based and shore duty units have to “set an aggressive execution timeline,” and milestones for incorporating new training into their programs by the end of 2026.

The post Marine Corps and Navy update gas mask training to meet shaving rules appeared first on Task & Purpose.

The U.S. Marine Corps formally notified its South Korean counterpart in June that force availability would be constrained for the division-level exercise, known as Ssangyong, a South Korean Marine Corps spokesperson told a press briefing.

The allies remain in close consultations on resuming the drills, the spokesperson said. He did not specify what measures might be taken to prevent future cancelations or to make up for lost training opportunities.

U.S. Forces Korea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Later on Monday, the U.S. State Department said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun about a “range of issues” in their alliance.

Rubio told his South Korean counterpart that Washington and Seoul need to remain in close coordination on matters integral to their alliance, according to a State Department statement.

The cancelation of the amphibious landing drill follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise order to scale back a separate annual joint military exercise that ended last Friday, citing the cost and Seoul’s refusal to take part in the Iran war.

Trump also wrote on his Truth Social platform that the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills sent “a signal that was totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.” Despite the reduction of the exercises, Pyongyang fired 10 short-range ballistic missiles last week and issued a statement denouncing the exercises.

North Korea has long condemned such joint exercises as rehearsals for invasion.

The U.S. Marine Corps formally notified its South Korean counterpart in June that force availability would be constrained for the division-level exercise, known as Ssangyong, a South Korean Marine Corps spokesperson told a press briefing.

The allies remain in close consultations on resuming the drills, the spokesperson said. He did not specify what measures might be taken to prevent future cancelations or to make up for lost training opportunities.

U.S. Forces Korea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Later on Monday, the U.S. State Department said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun about a “range of issues” in their alliance.

Rubio told his South Korean counterpart that Washington and Seoul need to remain in close coordination on matters integral to their alliance, according to a State Department statement.

The cancelation of the amphibious landing drill follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise order to scale back a separate annual joint military exercise that ended last Friday, citing the cost and Seoul’s refusal to take part in the Iran war.

Trump also wrote on his Truth Social platform that the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills sent “a signal that was totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.” Despite the reduction of the exercises, Pyongyang fired 10 short-range ballistic missiles last week and issued a statement denouncing the exercises.

North Korea has long condemned such joint exercises as rehearsals for invasion.

France loves a battle-scarred survivor. Charles de Gaulle, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac clawed their way back from political failure to become presidents of the republic. There is a significant chance that Marine Le Pen will be next.

Now that the Paris appeal court has unshackled her from an electoral ban for fraud, the far-right veteran has double appeal in the race for the French presidency next year. She will run, as always, as an outsider and a scourge of the political elites – despite continuously holding electoral office since 1998. She can also now pose as a “miraculous survivor”, a “mother courage” and “a battling granny”, as senior French political figures, including former ministers, described her to me during recent conversations in Paris.

Mujtaba Rahman is the managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm

Continue reading…

Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 542 received the Department of the Air Force’s Gallant Unit Citation for actions between March 15-Oct. 7, 2025, according to an Aug. 19 Marine Administrative Notice on new awards. 

The Gallant Unit Citation was created in 2004 to honor “Air Force active duty, Reserve, and Air National Guard units for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy of the United States while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force on or after Sept. 11, 2001,” according to the Air Force’s personnel center. The award is below a Presidential Unit Citation, but is the unit equivalent to a Silver Star. 

The award itself has been presented only a handful of times. Some past recipients include the 385th Air Expeditionary Group and the 621st Contingency Response Group, both of which received the award for their role in the evacuation of Kabul in August 2021. A spokesperson for 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing confirmed the squadron had received an Air Force award.

The MARADMIN did not cite specific actions that VMFA-542 carried out to earn the Gallant Unit Citation, but said that it was receiving it as an “additional participating unit” to the Air Force’s 378th Air Expeditionary Wing, a provisional force operating under Air Force Central Command, which also received the award. The 378th was presented with the Gallant Unit Citation in October 2025, during a change of command ceremony for the wing. This month’s MARADMIN, nearly a year later, was the first announcement of the Marine Corps squadron receiving the unit award.

The Marine Corps fighter squadron deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in the spring of 2025, where it flew more than 1,099 combat sorties, according to an October 2025 release from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. The Marine Corps did not specify the operations the squadron took part in while in theater, instead saying that “VMFA-542 not only enhanced deterrence, supported regional maritime security, and deepened interoperability through combined training with allied and partner air forces.”

“During the deployment, VMFA-542 made a significant operational and strategic impact in the CENTCOM AOR,” the October 2025 release said. “The squadron conducted Close Air Support, Armed Overwatch, and Defensive Counter-Air missions in support of Marine, Navy, Army, coalition, and partner nation forces.”

The time period the award covers includes several U.S. military aerial engagements. In March 2025, the United States restarted combat operations against Houthi militants in Yemen, a two-month-long campaign that saw fighter jets conduct airstrikes throughout Yemen. Some pilots who participated later received Distinguished Flying Crosses and Silver Stars. U.S. fighter jets also flew intercept missions to take out Iranian missiles during the 12-Day War between Israel and Iran. And in late June, U.S. forces carried out Operation Midnight Hammer, a major air mission that saw dozens of planes support B-2 Spirit stealth bomber strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Several awards, including more Distinguished Flying Crosses, were presented this spring and summer to some airmen who took part in those operations.

The post Marine fighter squadron awarded rare Air Force unit citation appeared first on Task & Purpose.