A key goal of the Marine Corps’ overhaul oriented toward potential conflict with high-tech adversaries is to make the force less trackable, including by limiting troops’ use of personal cellphones. And that’s been no easy task, the top Marine officer said,
Marine Corps Times reports.
Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger said at a Defense Writers Group event in Washington that Russia’s war in Ukraine has underscored the need for Marines to limit the electronic signature they emit through their personal devices. That’s especially hard for younger troops, he noted.
“Every time you press a button, you’re emitting,” Berger said. “Every Marine, every soldier, every sailor grows up with these now. They don’t think anything about pressing a button — this is what they do all day long.”
“Now we have to completely undo 18 years of communicating all day long and tell them, ‘That’s bad, that will get you killed, so turn your cellphone off,’” he continued.
The use of personal electronic devices is up among Gen Z, with 46% of American teenagers saying in a 2022 Pew Research study that they are online almost constantly — roughly double the figure in 2014–2015. And 95% percent of teens reported having access to a smartphone.
Berger didn’t provide specifics on the Corps’ cellphone policy during his brief discussion of the topic. But limiting an adversary’s ability to detect Marines’ positions has long been a Marine Corps priority.
The Corps has stressed counter-reconnaissance in recent years in response to the threat of precise, long-range weapons that can kill Marines at a distance if an adversary knows their positions. Force Design 2030, the overhaul of the Marine Corps that Berger has spearheaded since his earliest days as commandant, seeks to make the force more nimble and less easily traced.
Avoiding detection means distributing Marines into smaller groups. It means seeking out smaller, faster watercraft. And it means reducing the electronic signals that Marines emit ― not only through weapons and transport, but also through personal devices.
