As drones move to become more integrated into the common unit, the US Marines share what that sort of training looks like both early on and in large scale exercises.
A video this week shared by the US Marine Corps, shows an individual Marine receiving training on Skydio‘s X2D drone. The X2D is a small drone, used by the military as well as law enforcement here in the states for short reconnaissance flights.
The training is basic, showing many steps many of us might have taken when learning to fly our drones for the first time: flying a circle, follow the tree line, orbit a single point, first slow then fast.
In 2025, the Department of Defense order its branches to better integrate new technologies directly into individual units. The Marines have taken that order and moved into action, setting up an MOS, Military Occupational Specialty, for sUAS Operator. These Marines receive training on sUAS platforms and then are sent back to their unit to share that training and technology. This differs from previous specialized units, trained with new tech like drones and were separate from other front line infantry forces.
These new operators can now use drones out in the field when needed, versus waiting for those specialized units to be called up and deployed.
We all know of Skydio’s big push into the defense sector. It’s been over three years since Skydio shutdown its consumer division, going all in on government and enterprise use cases for its platform. That move has done well for the company, however you could argue it’s now in a great position to return to the consumer market here in the US.
Skydio’s X2D has been in the world for a while, being announced just a few months before the end of Skydio’s consumer division. It’s a small, mostly autonomous recon drone that gives the unit quick eyes in the skies in both visual light and thermal vision.
It may just be the perfect drone for the job. Having flown one myself a few years back, it’s easy to launch and land, can do a lot of tasks completely on its own, and its autonomous flight software means you really have to be pushing this drone to the max to crash it.
Of course the US Military isn’t just using drones for just recon anymore, that has been in use for many, many years at this point. What the Military is looking for more now are attack drone options and delivery of medical supplies to the front lines.
In August, the Marines shared what front line medical drone delivery looks like, with a larger heavy-lift drone deploying medical supplies to a “wounded” Marine in need of care. Companies like Malloy Aeronautics have options for the military to send rapid response drones out to units in need of either medical supplies, ammunition, or whatever else that the drones can carry and deploy.
It’s been talked about for years that drones are on their way to military units, and it’s fun to see that those days are finally upon us.
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