Voice is still key for command as USMC hones tactical communications

The US Marine Corps (USMC) has been fighting alongside the US Army in Afghanistan and Iraq since it led the original invasion to drive out the Taliban from the former and shared the drive for Baghdad in the latter.

The imperatives of combat operations nearly always lead to a rapid expansion of equipment scales. What seems to be the right quantity judged by peacetime training (however realistic) and viewed against a background of tight budgets and competing priorities rarely survives the realities of combat and the demands of the front line. The USMC's command, control, communications, computing and intelligence capability is no exception.

One of the most significant developments has been a dramatic increase in the density of radios. Before Operation 'Iraqi Freedom' was launched, a USMC infantry battalion had around 80 radios and it was rare to see a radio below platoon commander level, according to Steven Denton, Deputy Chief of the C4 Strategic Planning Division at Headquarters USMC. Now every marine has a radio of some type and eventually the same will be true of every vehicle. The most significant lesson that has been learned is that "everyone has to be connected to the network".

At present for the USMC, at the tactical level much of this is voice communications; data capability will come in due course. The individual marine is equipped with the voice-only Motorola AN/PRC-153 Integrated Intra-Squad Radio. This will eventually be replaced as part of the Marine Expeditionary Rifle Squad programme in the Fiscal Year 2014-16 timeframe.