Air Defense: Warriors, Lethal Weapons, and Innovation
The United States Marine Corps has storied history of adapting its air defense mission and capabilities to address the emerging threats of the era. In World War II, anti-aircraft artillery protected amphibious landings and forward bases from aerial attack. During the Cold War, HAWK surface-to-air missiles were developed and fielded to Marines to counter Soviet aircraft, seeing emergency deployment to Guantanamo Bay to protect U.S. assets during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In Iraq and Afghanistan, low-altitude air defense units pivoted from countering enemy aircraft to supporting ground units engaged in counter-insurgency operations. Today, as the U.S. adjusts to counter rising threats from near-peer competitors, the Marine Corps is once again innovating to meet the threat. With low-cost, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) emerging as decisive weapons on battlefields in the Middle East and Ukraine, the Marine Corps is rapidly fielding countermeasures to address these challenges.
The Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS), is the U.S. Marine Corps’ new ground-based mobile air defense system, designed to move with and protect Marines operating on the ground. Recognizing the rapidly changing threat environment, and notably focused on its implications for a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific, the Marine Corps made an early push to modernize its Ground Based Air Defense capabilities. MADIS became the Marine Corps’ solution to address these evolving threats, particularly those posed by one-way-attack UAS. MADIS was designed, tested and fielded to Marines on a rapid timeline, and at comparatively low cost, setting an impressive precedent for other U.S. military services.
MADIS is a vehicle mounted air defense system, armed with sensors and shooters to provide Marines constant awareness and coverage. It will ultimately be fielded in two variants – a Mk1 and Mk2 – with kinetic and non-kinetic (electronic warfare) weapon systems, advanced EO/IR optics, and a shoulder-fired Stinger missile for dismounted operations. The Mk2, a dedicated counter-UAS variant, is equipped with a 360-degree active sensing radar – a first for low-altitude air defense units in the Marine Corps.
RAPID DEVELOPMENT AND FIELDING
From initial concept in 2016, MADIS reached the operational force remarkably quickly. After the FY20 defense budget’s allocation of $150M for MADIS, the system reached its first operational design in just nine months. By December 2023, MADIS began low-rate production, and completed its initial operational testing and evaluation by summer of 2024. In December, MADIS was fielded to the 3d Marine Littoral Regiment (3d MLR), and will be owned by the 3d Littoral Anti-Air Battalion (3d LAAB), operated by low-altitude air defense Marines with the Ground-Based Air Defense Battery.
MADIS delivered on speed and flexibility in testing with the 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, a key goal of the Marine Corps’ ‘Force Design 2030’ initiative. In January, 3d LAAB embarked MADIS on a ship and sent it to the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island of Hawaii for the Marine Corps Combat Readiness Exercise. With support of the program office in charge of MADIS, 3d LAAB conducted the first live-fire range with the system. The addition of MADIS provides 3d MLR with an enhanced, flexible and expedient air defense capability, and increases responsiveness against potential adversary UAS attacks. More broadly, MADIS reinforces the Marine Corps’ threat-based approach to force design and modernization, and emphasizes regional support to allies and partners.
REDUCING THE COST CURVE
Its design architecture keeps costs low, and maintenance quick. The Program Executive Office Land Systems Marine Corps (PEO LS), which manages the Marine Corps’ Ground-Based Air Defense programs, helps reduce the costs associated with developing, testing, and fielding MADIS by leveraging its system-of-systems architecture. Each of MADIS’ subsystems are produced by different manufacturers, so the program office is able to continuously identify economical ways to replace parts without needing to rely on a single prime contractor for components. This is true whether in testing, in the field, or in exercises, enabling support to the warfighter wherever needed. Additionally, the program office is looking to enable “over-the-air” software updates in the near future, to provide Marines with the digital capabilities and upgrades they need at the frontline.
Down to the unit level, the Marine Corps is supporting innovation to deliver for warfighters on the frontline. The 3rd LAAB is also looking into potential applications for additive manufacturing, which would allow the Marine Corps to produce components and rapidly deliver them to the field. If implemented, this would decrease component wait times, and save time and materials for single-use applications such as counter-UAS live-fire exercises, and other ground-based air defense live-fire training. Over the longer-term, these Marines are exploring not just small-piece component production but using additive manufacturing to produce munitions at the frontline, delivering critical capability at the forward edge of battle.
These approaches highlight the United States Marine Corps’ innovative approach to delivering cutting-edge capability to warfighters, demonstrating a proof-of-concept for other services to emulate as they modernize, field new systems, and develop countermeasures to keep pace with the rapidly evolving threat landscape.
For today’s modern, complex, and lethal battlefields, every Warrior matters and every lethal weapon counts, as we design, build, and field a new architectural constellation of weapons systems to guarantee America’s enduring victory!
By John Kearns, MDAA MG John G. Rossi Fellow
