Marines must – A top Marine general says the Corps’ air-defense modernization is moving too slowly to keep up with fast-evolving drone and missile threats, pushing for faster fielding at scale, open-architecture interoperability, and a layered approach—especially as incident
For the Marine Corps, air defense is no longer something built on a slow timetable. Lt. Gen. Eric Austin. the Corps’ deputy commandant for combat development and integration and senior ground-acquisition official. put it bluntly: the pace of modernization is lagging the speed at which battlefield threats are changing.
“We’re on a path for our 2030 vision, but guess what, it’s not fast enough,” Austin said during a discussion on Marine Corps modernization efforts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a DC-based think tank. “We’ve got to field faster, and we have to get these out at scale.”
The pressure is not theoretical. Austin linked the need for urgency to evolving drone and missile threats stretching “from Europe to the Middle East,” and to what US troops have experienced in recent conflicts.
The Marine Corps is investing in new air-defense systems, including the Marine Air Defense Integrated System. But Austin said the next step isn’t just buying more platforms—it’s changing how quickly and how broadly they reach Marines where threats are most intense.
A key part of that shift is interoperability. Austin said new air-defense systems need to be easy for each service to use and built with open architecture so they can work with other systems and be upgraded quickly. “For a Marine Corps system. and particularly for air defense. it’s absolutely critical that it be able to talk to all the other air agencies. ” Mark Cancian. a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and retired Marine colonel. said.
Austin also argued that the current modernization timeline hasn’t matched emerging, fluid threats closely enough.
He pointed to how the Corps’ air-defense posture softened after the Cold War. “Our ground-based air defense portfolio got a little bit sleepy back in the 90s,” Austin said. “We were relying on a really point-defense, low altitude air defense mechanism, but that’s not good enough anymore.”
Drone warfare, in particular, has forced the hand. Cancian said one lesson from the war in Iran is the need to deal with drones, including Iranian-designed Shahed one-way attack drones that have been fired at times in the hundreds.
The timeline urgency has been made sharper by casualties and the details of recent strikes. In March, six US service members were killed in Kuwait after an Iranian Shahed drone penetrated American air defenses. In 2024. three US service members were killed and dozens more were injured after a one-way attack drone hit Tower 22. a small logistics outpost in northeastern Jordan. An investigation found several failures and a lack of preparedness that led to the drone slipping past defenses.
Those incidents also exposed how perimeter protection assumptions can break down. Austin described vulnerabilities in American combat facilities that had previously been thought sufficiently protected with large. thick concrete barriers known as “t-walls. ” or giant earth-filled HESCO barriers. and even sandbags. In a world of prolific drone warfare—where cheap drones lower the barrier to surveillance and precision strike—those perimeter defenses are less effective. leaving troops vulnerable to aerial attacks.
The impact is showing up in how units train. The shift has prompted some US units to begin training for underground operations, echoing Ukrainian tactics.
Within that broader push, the Marine Corps’ next fiscal-year effort includes weapons such as the Marine Air Defense Integrated System. MADIS is designed as the Marines’ new. short-range and mobile air defense system to counter drones. loitering munitions. and other threats. It turns two Joint Light Tactical Vehicles into a single short-ranged ground-based air defense system.
The Corps is already starting to field parts of that vision. In June, Marines in Okinawa received their first MADIS, along with their first Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS). A press release said these systems provide Okinawa-based. 3rd Marine Division Marines with cutting-edge. land-based anti-ship and anti-sUAS [small-uncrewed aerial systems] capabilities tailored for the complex littoral environment.
But Austin said the Corps needs more of these capabilities in more places where it is operating. “We have to field faster, and we have to get these out at scale. It’d sure be nice to have these fielded at scale in CENTCOM today. ” he said. referring to US Central Command. which oversees US military activities in the Middle East. “We’ve got some fielded and some forward, but not enough.”.
The goal. as the Corps frames it. is an integrated. layered air-defense network capable of defending against threats ranging from missiles to small drones. That network is expected to include both kinetic and non-kinetic solutions. along with low-altitude. medium-altitude. and high-altitude interceptors. giving air defenders more options for intercepting a threat.
The request for the next fiscal year, and the push to accelerate deployment beyond early pockets, is essentially a response to a reality Marines are already dealing with: drones and missiles are not just more common—they are moving faster than the systems meant to counter them.
At the core of Austin’s remarks was a simple operational demand—field defenses quickly, connect them to broader systems, and scale them where the threats are happening now, not later.
Marine Corps air defense MADIS drones Shahed Kuwait Jordan Kuwait air defenses Tower 22 open architecture interoperability CENTCOM NMESIS Joint Light Tactical Vehicle