Mundy said there are a number of goals he hoped to complete – or at least make a strong start on – before his tour with MARSOC ends. Asked to identify the top three of those, he replied:

“We are evaluating our deployment model. Our base unit is a Marine Special Operations Company, and we’re looking at what the optimum size of our deployment model should be. So I would like to make a decision on whether we remain at our company level or deploy as a battalion.

“Putting the ‘A’ in MAGTF into MARSOC has not changed, and, while there has been no decision, I think there will be an effort at the service level to consider increasing the availability of aviation for MARSOC. That doesn’t necessarily mean we are pursuing owning our own aircraft – we’re too small for that – but there may be ways to get direct support. We see several interim steps to get to that and think it’s feasible, so I’m now pushing it up to the ‘Big Corps.’

“A third effort is we now have the first three Stalker UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] systems, which is a demonstration of how quickly SOF can move. We got funding for 10 systems of that Group 2 platform and it is being deployed now; the remaining seven should be delivered by the end of this summer. We think the distributed small unit focus we have can take advantage of systems that are much smaller than an armed Predator. [For example], there are lots of different ground-mounted systems that could be employed. We’re pursuing it the same way we pursued Stalker last year, and I hope to see advances in that before I leave.”

With its new special operations career path in place, MARSOC has a higher-than-usual retention rate, but still needs to recruit new special operators and support personnel to replace those who do transfer or retire and to fill new billets. The command has created three courses designed to do that and to expand knowledge about MARSOC to the Big Corps and other services.

The MARSOC Combat Support Orientation Course (MCSOC) is specifically designed to attract existing Marines and expose them to some of the command’s critical enabler skill sets, such as explosive ordnance technician. Unlike critical skills operators and special operations officers and their “closed-loop” career track, the Special Operations Capability Specialists typically are with MARSOC for 60-month tours before either returning to the Marine Corps or getting out of the service. Mundy said a larger number of Marines have signed up for each new iteration of MCSOC, a strong sign for the ranks of high-demand, specialized Marines on 60-month loan from the Corps.

“We’ve also hired an individual to help us track those who are interested in coming in as support Marines. And we’re looking at taking some of our best practices from the formal [assessment] and selection for operators and using those in MCSOC as part of the recruiting and screening to help us ascertain if we have the right Marine and if that Marine thinks he or she is a good fit for MARSOC,” he told Special Operations Outlook.

The other two courses – the Multi-Discipline Logistics Operations Course (MDLOC) and Multi-Discipline Intelligence Operators Course (MDIOC) – are open not only to all Marines, but also service members from sister service components. The goal there is to help identify problems and put solutions in place, improve exposure to MARSOC, and improve deployment interoperability.

“The MDLOC has run three courses, each modified, and will formally transition into the regular training center after a fourth run. We will apply for it to have its own Marine occupational specialty,” he added. “MDIOC is going exceptionally well, preparing our intel Marines exceedingly well for the challenges they will face.”

MARSOC’s recruitment efforts include women, under new Department of Defense (DOD) regulations opening all military billets to female warfighters. While there are 87 women in the command, “all of whom play critical roles and very important leadership staff positions,” none are special operators.

“We have had three female Marines apply for assessment and selection, but none of those were selected. However, we have a few more who have applied, but have not yet gone through the assessment and selection process,” Mundy said.

When asked what emerging technologies he felt are most important to pursue for MARSOC by 2030, Mundy quickly identified the growing evolution in the continuum from machine learning to adaptive to cognitive to artificial intelligence (AI).

“I’m enamored with machine learning and AI. We certainly see lots of special applications that are small, miniaturized for use in small capabilities. And also for analytics, to have machines take care of a lot of the mundane tasks and chores, especially when you don’t have that many people anyway. To get to a level of analysis much quicker, then have the higher level analysis done by a human, will advance the capabilities of our formations,” he said.

“As we begin to think of other areas of the world, we need to be able to operate in environments where our reliance on communications, which has been nearly without failure in the past decade and a half, will be challenged. [We need] technologies that allow us to bring all the force we can apply against threats that can impede our ability to communicate.”

Two other evolving technology areas of interest to MARSOC are wearable computing systems and ways to counter an adversary’s use of unmanned vehicle “swarms.”

“The advances already have been far-reaching for wearable computing devices, but like every new piece of kit, you have to train to it, and that involves time to make sure they are used the right way. All these applications, in a way, are part of the Internet of Things, and we have to make sure we have dealt with any vulnerabilities they might present,” Mundy said.

“We [MARSOC and SOCOM] are interested in defending against [unmanned] swarms. They represent lots of capability that is low cost-of-entry, and we’ve seen rather unsophisticated threats use it. SOCOM is especially interested in finding ways to defeat that, and we are following their lead. Right now, however, we are not pursuing a swarm capability of our own.”

“As we begin to think of other areas of the world, we need to be able to operate in environments where our reliance on communications, which has been nearly without failure in the past decade and a half, will be challenged.”

MARSOC is the youngest service component of SOCOM, the Marine Corps never having created a separate, specialized special ops command. It also is by far the smallest, comprising only 5 percent of SOCOM’s total personnel. Some have seen that as little more than a token gesture to SOCOM by the Marine Corps. However, MARSOC’s small size in many ways reflects that of the Big Corps, which is less than 15 percent of the total DOD active-duty force – and size has never been a measure of the value, utility, versatility, and rapid adaptability of the Marine Corps.

“One of the primary parts of MARSOF 2030 is turning the idea that small is not necessarily a good thing on its head. As we wrote that document, we thought about how to use our size to SOCOM’s advantage, rapidly turning the whole organization to that end. So instead of thinking of us as a fungible capability like the rest of SOF, taking the 5 percent of SOCOM we represent and applying it to a specific problem,” Mundy said.

“That’s our idea behind Enterprise Level Agility. I think we’ll move very deliberately to become that agile force that can be turned quickly to a specific problem and take a load off the SOCOM commander’s plate and help him regain a measure of operational flexibility. That’s where a smaller force could be very useful.”

This article was originally published in the 2018-2019 edition of Special Operations Outlook.