WASHINGTON — The U.S. Marine Corps is drafting a strategic vision plan for its information warfare capabilities. The plan aims to translate complex technical concepts into a broader strategic vision for the Corps, policymakers, and senior Pentagon leaders, Deputy Commandant for Information Jospeh Matos said at the Modern Day Marine Conference in Washington in April.

The plan centers on professionalizing the information warfare community by transitioning siloed information intelligence and communications occupational fields into an information warfare community with standardized training and readiness pipelines. Its primary vision is to establish strategic initiatives that serve as the connective tissue between broad Marine Corps strategies and clear, time-phased modernization roadmaps.

The plan seeks to justify funding requests to Congress. It will outline resources required by information warfare Marines in coming years, providing justification for capabilities such as resilient tactical networks, AI-enabled data fusion, and long-range sensing and targeting. The plan also seeks to explain to industry representatives what capabilities Marines seek to manipulate information on the battlefield.

The plan centers on driving greater integration of information warfare capabilities across the fleet to enable the joint force. It is expected to highlight institutional changes needed to better integrate directly into the combat power of the Marine Air-Ground Task Forces.

"There is an insatiable demand and realization by combatant commanders now that non-kinetic effects are integral to what they need to do, and they are turning to the services, particularly to the Marine Corps, to say, 'Hey, I need this capability in addition to the traditional arms of the' Marine Air-Ground Task Forces," Matos said.

"Those demand signals are out there because they realize, in order for the combat commander to do his job, they need these non-kinetic effects from across the services," he said.

Why It Matters

This strategic vision plan establishes a framework for the future development and integration of the Marine Corps' information warfare efforts. The Corps established the deputy commandant for information position in 2017 and published Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication-8, Information, in 2022.