The Marine Corps is slated to hold a series of events as part of a new attack drone competition the service announced recently.
The May 25 Marine Administrative Message, or MARADMIN, outlines that the service is seeking drone teams from across the Corps to participate in the competition.
The first event will be held at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia in November, according to the MARADMIN.
Before then, the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team will participate in the U.S. Military Drone Crucible Championships. That event is hosted by the U.S. National Drone Association from June 30 to July 3 in Florida.
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The team, established in January, focuses on integrating first-person view drones — aerial vehicles that transmit live bird’s-eye view feeds to remote displays — across the Fleet Marine Force.
“Today’s battlefield is changing rapidly, and we must adapt just as quickly,” said Maj. Alejandro Tavizon, the Weapons Training Battalion Headquarters Company commander and officer in charge of MCADT. “The Marine Corps Attack Drone Team will ensure that our warfighters remain at the forefront of precision drone employment, providing a critical advantage in future conflicts.”
The attack drone group, which is based out of the Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico, will work to “develop and refine” armed first-person view drone training, speed up the timeline for the fielding the drones and provide instruction through live training events.
The competition, meanwhile, will consist of tactical inserts and mission parameters designed to use the “hunter-killer method” of employing small drones and FPV drones. Marines will then share lessons learned from the competition to inform updates that the Corps will use to rapidly field the most lethal capabilities across the service, according to the release.
At the same time, the team will finalize plans to provide intermediate and advanced armed FPV drone skills to the Fleet Marine Force and Total Force via the Competition-in-Arms Program, or CIAP, similar to the work done by the Marine Corps Shooting Team.
The drone outfit will then host regional competition events in Fiscal Year 2026 alongside the shooting team and the CIAP.
The Corps wants to use these events to recruit the best drone operators to the team, which will represent the Marines at various events and directly influence the service’s procurement and use of armed drones.
Units across the Corps must designate drone teams by Sept. 30 to participate in the regional competitions.
The final championship and selection event will be held at Quantico in April 2026, in conjunction with the Marine Corps Championships marksmanship event.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
