Marines may be learning whole new ways to fight in a new kind of
littoral battlespace, against different adversaries such as the Chinese military, but an old foe still lurks on any likely future battlefield: improvised explosive devices.
While the knowledge and training to
counter IEDs didn’t completely disappear, it did fade from prominence for future battle prep and widespread practice. But the threat continues to evolve.
During the Thursday panel on training and education at the 2022 Modern Day Marine Expo in Washington, Maj. Gen. Julian D. Alford, head of Training Command, was asked what lessons, if any, had been learned from the ongoing fight against the Russian invasion of Ukraine that could be applied to training now.
“No. 1 is we have to have counter-
IED programs stood back up, period,” Alford said. “It’s criminal if we don’t train our Marines on counter-IED before they deploy.”
Alford noted that when the Russian forces pulled back from northern Kyiv, multiple Ukrainian civilians and soldiers were killed by IEDs left by the Russians.
“We’ve been preaching this for a long time ― that the IED works,” Alford said. “So, China’s going to use the IED, Russia’s using the IED, Iran, North Korea and, of course, extremists.”