The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory – originally known as the Commandant’s Warfighting Laboratory – was created in 1995. Tasked with improving current and future Naval expeditionary capabilities, MCWL developed an initial three-phase, five-year experimentation plan (FYEP) in 1995.
Hunter Warrior (1995-1997) experiments examined operations in dispersed, non-contiguous battlespaces similar to those encountered in the Persian Gulf War and culminated with an advanced warfighting experiment at Camp Pendleton, California. Urban Warrior (1997-1999) experiments examined tactics, techniques, procedures (TTP) and emerging technologies that might be used in urban environments. As the first live-force experimentation focusing directly on the challenges of urban operations, Urban Warrior identified gaps in Marine Corps training and readiness to fight in cities. Capable Warrior (1999-2001) was a series of time-phased experiments focusing on over-the-horizon command and control issues, other warfighter technologies, expeditionary operations in the littorals, and the myriad of challenges associated with operational maneuver from the sea. Project Metropolis (1999-2004) ran concurrently with Capable Warrior to exploit the knowledge gleaned during Urban Warrior.
Project Metropolis sought to rapidly exploit emerging lessons learned and take a combined arms approach to urban combat. As a result, MCWL identified, defined, and refined the TTP and near-term technology enablers that have been mainstays of Marine Corps urban training and later employed by Marines in Operations ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) in Afghanistan and IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) in Iraq. After September 11, 2001, the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, in concert with sister Services, Royal Marines, and Australian Army augmentees, refined TTPs from Project Metropolis into the Basic Urban Skills Training (BUST) package to prepare Operating Force units for experimentation. The BUST training program was subsequently adapted and institutionalized by Training Command and the Marine Corps standard for urban warfare training.
MCWL conducted a series of distributed operations (DO) experiments from 2004-2006 to develop and refine operational capabilities associated with the CMC-approved Concept for Distributed Operations (DO) and CG MCCDC approved Concept for Operations in Complex and Distributed Environments. This inaugurated a series of Sea Viking experiment plans that focused on different aspects of DO including company-level intelligence cell, squad fires, Infantry Skills Simulation Working Group, combat fitness, and lightening the load. In late 2004, MCWL was tasked to identify, develop, and refine TTPs for Stability and Support Operations. Proven through live force experimentation and fully documented to the Operating Forces in the form of X-Files, these TTPs became the early underpinnings of the “Mojave Viper” pre-deployment training program.
The focus of the lab shifted to enhanced company operations experimentation from 2007-2011. It built on the results of DO experimentation and capability development to provide the critical link between operational planning and squad level tactical execution. Experiments included squad fires (2007-2008), company-level intelligence cell, company-level operations center (2008), a comprehensive live-force experiment focused on company level C4 and logistics requirements (2009), and a sea based/expeditionary enhanced company operations (2010).
From 2011-2015, MCWL continued supporting current operations through mission-critical projects focused on counter-improvised explosive devices, blast mitigation, and the electrocution mitigation sleeve during Enhanced MAGTF Operations. In 2013 MCWL merged with the Futures Directorate and gained their strategic foresight and concept development capacity. This allowed the development of concepts and capabilities for the future fight such as long-range-on-the-move-communications, individual water purification, future maritime operations, and a variety of unmanned ground vehicles and aircraft systems.
In 2015, MCWL/FD launched Sea Dragon 2025 (SD25) to develop and examine threat-informed, future-oriented concepts and capabilities and provide analytically supported recommendations to support the Marine Corps Force Development and Design Process. It is comprised of studies, wargames, lessons learned, Advanced Naval Technology Exercises (ANTX), live-force experiments, and S&T assessments executed using a three-phase approach. Phase One explored the premise of conducting successful maneuver warfare against a near-peer adversary in an anti-access/area-denial environment if given proper naval support, a sea-based MAGTF with a GCE based on an infantry battalion manned, and equipped IAW MCF 2025. Phase Two began in FY18 and used ITX 3-18, Exercise Trident Juncture, and the ANTX to assess the impact of hybrid logistics on the future force. The current focus is on Operations in the Information Environment (OIE), specifically, coordinating OIE related capabilities employment in conjunction with fires and maneuver through the 21st Century Fires wargames, Pacific Blitz 19, and other experiments. The future is focused on the experimentation and validation of concepts and capabilities that will support maritime campaign operations.
MCWL will continue to experiment and assess, concepts and capabilities to provide Marine Corps leadership analytically defensible output to effectively inform the combat development process and shape a Marine Corps capable of defeating a peer adversary.