OCTOBER 28, 2025 – U.S. Marines with the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team received the Commander’s Intent for Drone Dominance Award on Oct. 10 for their contributions prior to and during the inaugural U.S. National Drone Association Crucible held Sept. 19-24 at Avon Park Air Force Range, Florida.
This recognition comes at a pivotal moment as the Marine Corps advances drone technology into its operational forces, in line with the policy goals outlined in Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s July “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance” memorandum, which emphasizes accelerating U.S. military drone capabilities.
The MCADT received the Commander’s Intent Award for their performance at the five-day USNDA Drone Crucible, demonstrating their contribution to advancing U.S. military drone dominance. The team excelled across multiple events at the Crucible, successfully simulating modern and anticipated combat environments, including close-quarters, long-range strike, counter-small unmanned aircraft systems, and spectrum-contested conditions. Additionally, the team contributed to plans to field thousands of first-person view attack drones beginning later this month across infantry, littoral combat team, and reconnaissance battalions in the Fleet Marine Force. The MCADT also led the development of attack drone employment tactics, techniques, and procedures for employing these systems, including kinetic payloads with effects up to 20 kilometers.
“Through aggressive training and experimentation, and by representing the Marine Corps in inter-Service and national events, the MCADT is rapidly learning and applying lessons from modern combat to help expand our entire Corps’ warfighting advantage,” said Col. Scott Cuomo, commanding officer of Weapons Training Battalion.
At the Crucible and over the past 10 months, the team has worked closely with U.S. Special Operations Command and other Service drone experts. This collaboration culminated in a combined FPV attack drone strike, executed consecutively by MCADT Marines, Army Rangers, and Navy SEALs. The strike was a direct result of the strong partnership and exchange of proven strategies that have taken place between all three units, ensuring that every element of the Joint Force can maximize FPV attack drone capabilities as rapidly as possible.
“Working side-by-side with our joint partners is how we turn lessons into advantage, by sharing tactics, testing together, and rapidly fielding what works,” said Maj. Miguel Ramirez, officer in charge of the MCADT. “The MCADT is committed to building interoperable FPV attack drone
capabilities that make every warfighter more lethal, increase survivability.”
On a separate front, the MCADT is leading the Service’s first Marine Corps Attack Drone Competitions as an added component to the annual Marine Corps Marksmanship Competitions.
In line with the goal of expanding FPV expertise, during the first competition in Quantico, the MCADT is training and certifying approximately 20 Marines from The Basic School and 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion as Attack Drone Operators, along with several others to become Kinetic Payload Specialists. These newly certified Marines will support the training of hundreds of lieutenants at The Basic School and Reserve Component Marines over the next few years, helping them employ and integrate FPV attack drones as a new weapons system within the Service’s combined-arms capability set.
A few weeks after this inaugural MCADC, the MCADT will travel to Okinawa, Japan, to train several dozen Third Marine Division Marines through competition, certifying them as FPV Attack Drone Operators and Payload Specialists. This will bring these critical capabilities to priority units in the First Island Chain, followed by four additional competitions at the Service’s primary training bases worldwide in early 2026 and culminating in the Championship event at MCB Quantico in April.
Through a deliberate, competition-based training process modeled on the Marine Corps Shooting Team’s long-standing and successful marksmanship program, the MCADT will develop Marines capable of effectively employing FPV attack drones.
For more information on the MCADT, please contact Training and Education Command Communication Strategy and Operations at smb_tecom_media@usmc.mil.
Story by Staff Sgt. Claudia Nix
U.S. Marine Corps Training and Education Command