Breaking News
U.S. Marines Lead Indo-Pacific Transformation as Drone Warfare Becomes Every Marine’s Skill.
U.S. Marines in Okinawa trained with Skydio X2D small unmanned aerial systems as part of III MEF’s push to make drone operation a common skill across the force. The approach mirrors rapid battlefield changes seen in Ukraine and rising PLA drone concepts that emphasize early situational awareness.
U.S. Marines from 3d Reconnaissance Battalion and 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company conducted small unmanned aerial systems training on Camp Courtney, Okinawa, Japan. The event centered on operating Skydio X2D drones as part of III Marine Expeditionary Force’s wider effort to spread drone and counter-drone skills beyond traditional reconnaissance units. This training reflects how Indo-Pacific–based Marines are translating lessons from Ukraine and evolving People’s Liberation Army concepts into practical tactics at the lowest echelons. It is relevant because small drones and counter-drone measures increasingly shape the opening minutes of any modern engagement and can determine which side gains the first accurate picture of the battlefield.The activity and imagery were released through the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.
By treating small drones as a standard tool for every Marine rather than a niche capability, III MEF is quietly reshaping how its forces will fight in the first minutes of any Indo-Pacific crisis (Picture Source: DVIDS)
On Camp Courtney’s training areas, Marines from 3d Recon and 5th ANGLICO were joined by specialists such as automotive maintenance technicians and supply administration clerks, all learning to launch, recover and operate Skydio X2D drones. The presence of non-infantry and support Marines on the flight line illustrates a deliberate shift by III MEF: treating every Marine as a potential drone operator, regardless of military occupational specialty. Rather than confining small UAS to reconnaissance platoons, the force is pushing these skills into logistics, fires, and command-and-control cells so that any small team can generate its own close-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance picture.
The Skydio X2D used in the training is a quadcopter-type small UAS designed for unit-level ISR, combining a rugged airframe with electro-optical and infrared sensors. Open reporting on previous III MEF courses in Okinawa notes that the Marines’ X2D variant has a range of roughly 3.5 miles and a digital zoom capability of up to 16x, allowing operators to identify vessels or ground targets while remaining under cover. During training, Marines practiced manual flight, automated flight paths, and rapid hand-offs between operators, all under the constraint of maintaining positive control and safe employment in a busy garrison environment. These repetitions build the muscle memory required to integrate live video feeds into fire support requests, route planning, and force protection tasks.
This course is one manifestation of a broader pattern across III MEF in Okinawa, where small UAS are now present in artillery, intelligence, and liaison units during exercises such as Kaiju Rain and sUAS integration courses on neighboring training areas. In those events, Marines have used Skydio platforms to provide “digital eyes on target” for artillery and naval gunfire, linking small teams with long-range fires and higher-level command posts. By standardizing training on a common drone family and spreading operators across the force, III MEF is building a shared playbook that blends organic ISR, precision targeting and counter-drone awareness.
At the doctrinal level, this evolution reflects the Marine Corps’ Force Design and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concepts, which assume dispersed, small units operating inside an adversary’s weapons engagement zone. In such an environment, small UAS provide the first layer of sensing, while counter-sUAS procedures aim to protect those same units from hostile quadcopters and loitering munitions. In parallel, Chinese military writings increasingly emphasize “intelligentized warfare,” a future battlefield dominated by AI-enabled, unmanned and networked systems, underscoring why U.S. forces see drone literacy as a basic requirement for Marines stationed in the Western Pacific.
By repeatedly conducting these courses on Okinawa, III MEF is turning the island into a practical laboratory for drone and counter-drone integration in a contested maritime theater. Official descriptions of recent small UAS training across III MEF units highlight not only proficiency with systems like the Skydio X2D but also the goal of institutionalizing the development, integration and employment of Counter-sUAS capabilities in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. Each iteration adds data on tactics, communications, and deconfliction in a dense electromagnetic and airspace environment, knowledge that can be recycled into tactics, techniques and procedures for future contingencies.
By treating small drones as a standard tool for every Marine rather than a niche capability, III MEF is quietly reshaping how its forces will fight in the first minutes of any Indo-Pacific crisis. The training hosted by 3d Recon on Camp Courtney shows that this shift is already underway on the ground, with logistics and support Marines learning the same drone skills as reconnaissance specialists. As small UAS and counter-UAS measures continue to prove decisive from Ukraine to the Western Pacific, Okinawa’s evolving role as a drone training hub signals that U.S. Marines intend to arrive on the next battlefield already fluent in this critical layer of modern warfare.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.