Tradition has long been an essential part of the United States Marine Corps. It’s tradition that’s responsible for instilling a Corps-wide expertise with rifles. It’s the reason why a Marine squad has always been a baker’s dozen — and it’s why those thirteen personnel can put some real hurt on the bad guys.
Well, according to a report by Stars and Stripes, the Marines are going to be making big changes in how their ground combat units are organized, and even the traditional rifle squad is going to see change.
Every Marine in a fire team will be packing a M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle.
(USMC photo by Lance Cpl. Tanner Seims)
The traditional rifle squad had three four-man fire teams. Each fire team was made up of one Marine with a rifle-mounted grenade launcher, another Marine with an automatic rifle (formerly the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, now the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle), a third Marine to assist the automatic rifleman, and a fourth packing just a regular rifle.
The new squad will consist of an even dozen Marines and will be comprised of three-man fire teams. Bad guys shouldn’t think that this makes things easier, though. Every member of the fire team will pack an M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle. That’s a lot of rock and roll inbound for the bad guys.
Big changes are coming in the shoulder-launched weapons area: The SMAW is out, and Carl is in.
(USMC photo by Sgt. Melissa Marnell)
There will also be a change to the squad command structure. It used to be that there was a squad leader and that was it. Now, there will be an assistant squad leader (a second-in-command, if you will), as well as a new position for a “squad systems operator.” This Marine will operate quadcopter drones, with which each squad will be outfitted. One other thing: The Marines are leaving open the possibility of adding a rifleman to the new fire team organization should a mission call for it.
Other changes include replacing the shoulder-launched multi-purpose assault weapon (SMAW) with the latest multirole anti-armor anti-personnel weapon system (MAAWS), also known as Carl Gustav. Each battalion loses two 81mm mortars and four BGM-71 TOW missile launchers, but will have a total of 12 FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles.
Every Marine squad will have a quadcopter drone.
(USMC photo by Sgt. Lucas Hopkins)
There will also be a host of other improved technologies.
In short, the Marines of 2025 will still be able to kick a lot of ass — they’ll just look a little different doing it.