The Transformation of Marine Marksmanship

·32 min·2 clips

Why drones on the battlefield make individual Marine marksmanship more important, not less.

1. War on the Rocks host Ryan Evans interviews four Marines from Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico about transforming Marine Corps small arms marksmanship for lethality rather than qualification scores. 2. The four guests are Captain Phillip Williams (Infantry Marksmanship Training Program Officer-in-Charge, CH-53 pilot by background), Gunner Josh Gereich (Director of Marksmanship), Major Steve Stevenson (CEO of the Advanced Marksmanship Training Company, Logistics Officer), and Gunner Sergeant Jude Stewart (SNCOIC of the Infantry Marksmanship Training Program, infantryman by trade). 3. The episode's core argument is that drone proliferation and the dispersed operations envisioned under Force Design 2030 make individual Marine marksmanship more important than at any previous point, not less. 4. Gereich explains the zero-sum technology dynamic: just as stealth aircraft designed to eliminate dogfighting instead recreate it when both sides are stealthy, drone proliferation eventually drives both sides back to concealed close infantry contact where rifle skill is decisive. 5. Ukraine is cited as confirming the small-unit pattern: even in a large conventional war, units rarely mass above small-unit level because larger formations are immediately detected and targeted by drones or fires. 6. October 7th is referenced as an example of irregular forces employing advanced infantry tactics — demonstrating that small-unit lethality is not just an issue for peer adversaries but for lower-end threats as well, including the 2012 Camp Bastion attack that destroyed Harrier jets. 7. Force Design 2030 is cited as creating a specific vulnerability: logistics Marines will be inside weapons engagement zones without infantry support, meaning every Marine in the Marine Logistics Group must be lethal with a rifle regardless of occupational specialty. 8. Secretary Mattis stood up the Close Combat Lethality Task Force in 2018, which refocused attention on the individual rifleman and led directly to the capabilities-based assessment. 9. The capabilities-based assessment found that after-action reports from Iraq and Afghanistan included credible accounts of Marines hitting targets that did not fall — prompting the Marine Corps to examine whether its ammunition and training were producing physiological incapacitation. 10. The key finding was that the Marine Corps had no agreed definition of lethality: legacy training was built around a points-based target system, not around whether a round would physiologically stop an enemy; a new definition — instant incapacitation likely resulting in death — was adopted. 11. The assessment also identified three specific capability gaps: shooting while moving, shooting at unknown distances, and shooting at night — all of which have driven marksmanship modernization since 2018. 12. The SPEAR model (Speed, Precision, Executive Control, Adaptability, Risk Exposure) was developed by the Office of Naval Research and Training Education Command as a quantifiable lethality framework, with each element measurable except Risk Exposure, which requires force-on-force training. 13. The infantry marksmanship assessment (IMA) replaced end-of-string aggregate scoring with per-round accountability: every shot has a precise target placement and time stamp, producing a hit factor score that combines accuracy and speed with no performance ceiling. 14. Gunner Sergeant Stewart contrasts the new system with the old: 'I just see a target with a bunch of holes in it' — under the IMA, coaches can identify exactly which shots were weak and diagnose why, enabling targeted remediation. 15. The competitive scoring system is modeled on the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) classification framework, which allows cross-unit comparison on identical courses of fire and creates a meritocratic ranking that incentivizes continuous improvement. 16. A plateau in Marine Corps marksmanship data since 2014 is attributed partly to the ceiling effect of the old qualification tables, which maxed out at a point where further improvement was not measurable or incentivized. 17. The IMA also functions as a running acquisition experiment: when a new weapon, optic, or piece of equipment is issued, Marines shoot the standardized course of fire before and after, immediately quantifying whether the new equipment improved or degraded lethality. 18. Williams compares the new approach to aviation grade standards — altitude, airspeed, and heading must be within specified margins on every flight, and every landing is graded by the numbers — arguing the same philosophy now applies to marksmanship. 19. The episode has a collegial, technically detailed tone across four distinct voices; Evans asks pointed questions and the guests frequently build on each other's answers, producing a fluid panel discussion. 20. The episode suits listeners with military or policy backgrounds interested in infantry doctrine, force design, and small arms training innovation; those without prior knowledge of Marine Corps structure may find the acronyms and organizational references unfamiliar.

As heard by us

A technical, grounded look at how the Marine Corps is rebuilding marksmanship around measurable lethality.

Ryan Evans talks with four Marines from Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico about the Marine Corps' push to remake small-arms marksmanship around a sharper definition of lethality.

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You want the Marine Corps' marksmanship overhaul, without the gloss.

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