The Marines’ drone-killing machine preps for ultimate gear test

It’s shot down Iranian spy drones from the deck of an amphibious ship in the Strait of Hormuz and hunted unmanned aircraft in the Yuma Desert. But it’s about to be put through its paces like never before. 

The Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or MADIS, the Marines’ long-awaited drone-killing machine, is set to be fielded on a fast track starting with Hawaii’s 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion in fiscal 2025. The system, which gets mounted on two Joint Light Tactical Vehicles for a mobile hunter-killer one-two punch, has been long awaited as the Corps’ answer to the surging aerial drone threat.

Its first kill was back in 2019, when a small single-vehicle version of the system, known as L-MADIS, deployed aboard the USS Boxer, one of the three amphibious ships attached to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. Mounted on a Polaris MRZR, a small and lightweight all-terrain vehicle that can fit inside an MV-22 Osprey, L-MADIS’s suite of radars, an electro-optical/infrared camera, and a high-end radio frequency detection system pinpointed the drone, while an RF jammer severed its connection with its operators and brought it down. Military officials would later say the cost of the successful “kill” was merely the gas for the generator used to power the system.

L-MADIS has continued to deploy onboard ships; according to imagery published by the U.S. military, there’s one currently underway on the amphibious assault ship USS America, supporting the 31st MEU in the Philippine Sea.

However, until now, the full-strength version of the system – equipped with Stinger surface-to-air missiles as well as jammers and purportedly able to neutralize some conventional aircraft as well as unmanned systems – has not passed the prerequisite testing to enable it to be fielded to the total force. Known as Integrated Operational Testing and Evaluation, or IOT&E, this is the battery of assessments, conducted by Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Activity (MCOTEA) that proves a new warfighting system works as advertised, without major vulnerabilities or drawbacks. Like the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation which oversees all weapons testing for the DoD, MCOTEA doesn’t publicize specifics about the plan and scenarios for individual tests. 

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But according to its testing guidebook, IOT&E requires testing in “realistic combat conditions” and without intervention or maintenance from contractors on site.

“MCOTEA uses a mission-oriented context in operational testing to relate evaluation results to the impact on the Warfighter’s ability to execute missions,” the guidebook states. “Focusing on the mission context during operational test planning and execution provides a more robust operational test environment and facilitates evaluation goals.”

IOT&E will also involve Marines from 3rd LAAB, a unit created in 2022 as part of a new category of unit designed from the ground up to focus on detection, early warning, and defense against threats from the air in coastal regions, particularly those in the Indo-Pacific. 

MADIS has taken major steps already in the last year, with a live-fire test in December and a live-fire and system verification test in June that involved 30 Marines from 3rd LAAB. During the most recent evaluation period in the Yuma desert, drones weighing up to 55 pounds and operating at altitudes of 1,200 to 3,500 feet were deployed for MADIS to find and target, officials with Marine Corps Systems Command told Sandboxx News. While the real-world MADIS system will be equipped not only with Stinger missiles but also with 30mm machine gun turrets, officials said the tests so far have only involved training ammo. 

“Marines provided feedback for product improvements and planned future enhancements for the system as we move into full rate production and eventually, sustainment,” Systems Command spokeswoman Morgan Blackstock said in responses provided to Sandboxx News. “The Marines were excited to receive a new system more capable of engaging small [Unmanned Aerial Systems] than their current equipment set.”

Due to security classification, Blackstock couldn’t say how many drones were involved in the test and how successful MADIS was at jamming them or shooting them down. But she did confirm the testing involved a range of scenarios including aerial drone surveillance, reconnaissance, and interception.

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Col. Andrew Konicki, the Marines’ program manager for Ground-Based Air Defense, came away impressed.

“MADIS is a game-changer for counter [sic] UAS,” he said in a released statement. “This system provides the Marine Corps [with] an operational advantage – increasing our lethality on the battlefield.”

During IOT&E, a two-week test period set to take place in the coming months, more 3rd LAAB Marines will put MADIS through its full paces. And while that’s happening, Marines at Camp Pendleton, CA will get trained up on how to use MADIS, according to officials. New equipment training will take about two months, Blackstock said. 

While MADIS is loaded with tech to provide 360-degree surveillance and detection and a buffet of “kill” options for electronic and kinetic drone neutralization, Capt. Taylor Barefoot, the Corps’ Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems Capabilities Integration officer, said this spring at the Modern Day Marine Expo in Washington, D.C. that the hunter and killer capabilities have centralized operation points.

“All of that is operated from internal to MADIS, from the gunner seat,” Barefoot said of the suite of weapons.

At the same event, Barefoot and Lt. Col. Robert Barclay, the Marines’ ground-based air defense advisor for aviation expeditionary enablers, also acknowledged a built-in weakness of MADIS and all the weapons currently developed to fight drones. They don’t have foolproof ways to tell the difference between friendly UAS and hostile ones. Small drones, Barclay pointed out, aren’t equipped with “friend-or-foe” transponders like aircraft are. As technology matures and UAS become more ubiquitous, not just in the warfighting environment but also in everyday civilian life, MADIS and systems like it will have to adapt to stay effective. Likewise, as more systems become autonomous and hardened against electronic jamming, MADIS will likely have to adopt more powerful weapons to neutralize the threats it identifies.

This fall, 3rd LAAB will finally get its first 13 MADIS systems, right as the weapon achieves initial operating capability, marking it ready for combat. Program managers said earlier this year that the Marine Corps wants a total of 190 MADIS and 21 L-MADIS systems.

“Full-rate production of the MADIS continues through FY29,” officials said.

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