Marine Corps Releases GCE 2040 Roadmap for Infantry in a Drone-Covered World

The Marine Corps is rewriting how its infantry fights — and the center of gravity is the squad, not the headquarters element. On Wednesday, Aug. 26, the service released Ground Combat Element 2040, a 40-page blueprint for transforming how Marine ground units are trained and equipped for battlefields increasingly dominated by small drones.

The Threat Driving the Change

Loitering munitions, first-person-view attack drones, and inexpensive one-way unmanned systems have fundamentally altered the calculus of ground maneuver. The 2022 Ukraine conflict demonstrated what happens when cheap commercial drone technology meets precision strike — and the Marines have been working fast to close a significant gap in their own small-unit defenses.

"The ability for our lowest echelon units — squad, platoon, company — to defend themselves against these one-way attack systems is really maybe one of the biggest holes in our swing," said Lt. Gen. Jay M. Bargeron, deputy commandant for plans, policies, and operations, in a media briefing.

What GCE 2040 Calls For

The document's core thesis is direct: drones represent the most significant risk to ground maneuver, and the Marine Corps must build layered active and passive counter-unmanned aircraft systems down to the squad level. It explicitly calls for organic protective measures — systems that the small unit itself operates, not assets that require higher command approval to employ.

So far, the Corps has moved from planning to fielding at scale. More than 80 sets of what the Marines call the "organic counter small UAS system" have been issued to small units in 2026 alone. Those systems allow squads to both detect and jam small drones — and destroy them when necessary.

The document also references the SMASH 2000L weapon optic, which uses target-recognition algorithms to help shooters track and engage drones with standard rifle ammunition. The Corps has separately purchased 400,000 rounds of purpose-built anti-drone ammunition for the M4 carbine and M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle. That ammunition fragments into five distinct projectiles after leaving the barrel — a design specifically intended to increase the probability of hitting small, fast-moving UAS targets.

Offensive Capability for the Rifle Squad

GCE 2040 doesn't just address defense. Marine anti-tank missile gunners are being integrated into the loitering munitions role, meaning a platoon can now strike targets up to 20 kilometers away without calling in artillery, mortars, or aircraft. According to Bargeron, that represents a fundamental shift in how small units operate.

"That's something that Marines rifle squad, platoon, company would have had to depend on artillery somewhere else, mortars somewhere else, aircraft somewhere else to talk onto the target," he said. "I think that will be dramatic."

There are no current plans to create a new military occupational specialty for the loitering munitions role — the Corps is distributing the capability within existing career fields.

What This Means for the Tactical Gear Picture

The Marines' push to arm small units against drones mirrors what the Army and SOCOM have been building over the past two years — but GCE 2040 is among the most explicit institutional statements yet that the era of the standalone rifle squad is over. The modern infantry squad is increasingly expected to operate as a sensor node, a fires platform, and an air defense unit simultaneously.

That shift is already reshaping how individual tactical gear is evaluated and procured. optics designed for drone engagement, body-borne electronic warfare equipment, and purpose-built munitions rounds are entering the kit at the lowest levels. The question for buyers isn't whether to integrate counter-drone equipment — it's which systems will become standard issue first.

The Marines are also fielding the Home Alone countermeasure — a semi-fixed, ground-based air defense solution that extends drone detection to several kilometers. It rounds out a layered defense architecture the Corps is building from the individual Marine all the way up to battalion level.

What's Next

The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California, is developing a dedicated counter-drone tactics course that will be incorporated into regular training rotations. That curriculum will eventually formalize the TTPs — tactics, techniques, and procedures — that individual squads use against UAS threats in a peer-adversary conflict scenario.

Source: Task & Purpose