A little over 6yrs ago the USMC announced a new Operating Concept titled Distributed Operations.

D.O. was taking USMC infantry Plts & Squads and enhancing them w/ Advanced Patrolling, Zone & Area Reconnaissance, Surveillance & Observation, Man Tracking, Communications, & CAS Packages; operating them 10s-100s of miles & fr/a BN HQ w/10s of miles of dispersion btwn them.

Although heavily embraced fr/Lance Corporal to Commandant it was heavily criticized outside the Corps. 2yrs later the Concept was proven an overwhelming success in Combat in the Mountains of Afghanistan Jan-Jun '06.

In '07 just when the AA reports and articles on the successful deployment began to heavily circulate HQMC announced the program was dead.

But later that year very quietly the next logical step in the DO for was taken and Enhanced Company Operations. Whether DO was dead in name or not was irrelevant, its Operating Concept, training, and TTPs, were already validated & set in stone.

The Marine Rifle Co is seen as Optimum Construct to support Tactical DO. ECO set out to develop Marine Inf Co's that can do 2 things:
1) Support DO Plts
2) Conduct Operations over vast distances Independent of Higher HQ


The Corps has been developing the ECO Concept over the last 2yrs & has put much of the results into practice in its Operating Forces.

This summer the USMC will conduct its Culminating Exercise in ECO dubbed LOE 4. This LOE will be the proving ground for some potentially revolutionary Tactics & Technologies. Including:

1) Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS): A PDA-based Netted Iridium push-to-talk system that allows Squads to communicate out to 100 miles presently & w/a software upgrade coming that will push that out to 250mi.

The PDA also fulfills its traditional role of Personal Data Assistant for the Squad leader giving him a direct data link to Higher HQ. Also each squad member will have a Trellisware radio directly connected to the SqdLdr's PDA giving the SqLdr & HHQ exact locations for every Marine.

2) Reorganizing the Marine Rifle Co: Doubling the size of HQ, removing the Plt Guides, & adding a Scout & Reconnaissance Section made up of two 5-man S&R teams specially trained in controlling CAS & providing Close-In Reconnaissance.

3) Squad-Level Unmanned Ground Vehicles: The LOE will include early models of emerging UGV. 1) A wheeled variant of a Polaris 2+2 ATV that can be armed. 2) The early-stage gas powered Big Dog.

4) 155mm Howitzer Plt attached to the Inf. Company: In the future this could, & probably would, change to a 120mm EFSS Plt. But for now they want to test to the extreme of whats possible & available to support a Company Operating on its own w/Plts spread over great distances.




The Marine Corps always does things in relation to the Corps as a whole. W/the announcement of the Culminating EX last yr HQMC began referring to the ECO Company as the Company Landing Team or CoLT.

When the Marine Corps uses the suffixes 'Landing Team' or 'Combat Team' that means its the base Ground Combat Element of a larger MAGTF construct.

W/the validation of Distributed Ops Plts & Squads, the Company-level HQs to both Coordinate & Support DO Units independent of HHQ wrapping up. The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab announced it will move on to the Logical Conclusion of DO, Enhanced MAGTF Operations.

EMO Concept will develop:
1) How to properly incorporate Aviation & Logistics Units into Independently Operating Company-Sized MAGTFs.

2) Whether or not a separate Command & Control Element would need to be developed like that of the other MAGTFs w/an O-4 Major as over all MAGTF Commander.