The Marine Corps recently announced a bold direct-accessions program for select candidates to directly enlist into the service up to the rank of gunnery sergeant (E7). However, the service should go further and provide a path to direct accessions into the warrant officer ranks for exceptionally qualified technical experts. Critically, this proposal should be limited in scope and supplement, not replace, the existing processes for warrant officer accessions within the force. Finding an effective solution for lateral entry of technical experts is a high priority issue for the Marine Corps, specified as a directed action in Talent Management 2030.
Specialized Technical Skills
Emerging technologies such as autonomous systems and Intelligent Martial Robotics and Autonomous Systems (IRAS) can provide transformative operational capabilities but require a force with the requisite level of technical expertise to handle them. It is critical to have technical experts to employ, maintain, troubleshoot, and repair advanced technology in an expeditionary setting. This requires an in-depth knowledge of the integrated mechanical, electrical, and software systems and the ability to reconcile all these interconnected elements with limited external support. The ideal candidate for the expanded direct accessions program would be a midcareer mechatronics engineer with integrated knowledge of mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering. There is a lack of this level of advanced interdisciplinary technical knowledge within the Marine Corps.
An Evolving Security Challenge
Over the past three decades, the Marine Corps has optimized based on three core assumptions: presumed sea control, air superiority, and assured communications. However, these are the precise sources of U.S. military strength China will likely target in a future conflict.1 Anticipating this, the Marine Corps has in turn adapted with the development of the expeditionary advanced base operations (EABO) concept. EABO is a significant departure from how the U.S. military conducted war for the past two decades, which has been primarily characterized by large fixed bases of operation and a heavy reliance on external contracted support personnel. This reliance assumed a secure rear area, which is not an anticipated condition of the future operational environment. While defense contractors will continue to play an important role, the future operating environment demands that the Marine Corps increase its level of technical self-sufficiency in an expeditionary setting.
Currently, the Marine Corps training and education system is not well-suited for generating specialized technical skills within practical time constraints. According to Talent Management 2030, the current recruiting and accessions model for the Marine Corps is optimized for recruiting teenagers out of high school and does not provide a means for Americans with critical technical skills to laterally enter the Marine Corps at a rank appropriate for their expertise. Instead, an accessions model that pulls talent directly from the civilian workforce should be considered. Talent Management 2030 addresses this concept of lateral entry at the E-7 or O-5 level as a tool to attract talent in high-demand, low-density fields. What Talent Management 2030 does not address, however, is the possibility of lateral entry and direct accession into the warrant officer ranks. A typical candidate for this program would have strong employment prospects within the civilian sector, so providing midcareer financial and professional incentives is critical.
Organizational Resistance
The Marine Corps culture emphasizes starting from the bottom and working up through continued demonstrated performance and commitment. However, this is not a realistic approach for attracting critical high-demand talent. Lateral entry proposals must balance Marine Corps culture and accepted norms with methods to rapidly integrate technical experts into the force.
The Marine Corps has an outstanding brand that Americans continually aspire to be part of, as evidenced by recruiting and retention metrics. Talent Management 2030 emphasizes rebalancing recruiting and retention to mature the force, recognizing that high rates of personnel turnover and a bottom-heavy grade structure pyramid were not conducive to developing the force needed for the future operating environment. Talent Management 2030’s emphasis on lateral entry of technical experts is also indicative that the Marine Corps is willing to innovate.
A Practical Path Forward
An accelerated direct accessions pathway into the warrant officer ranks would be a practical path for mid-career technical experts. This can be done within current Title 10 statutory authorities and existing policy by using waivers for warrant officer eligibility, specifically for the requirement for a minimum of eight years of total qualifying service and the minimum rank requirement of sergeant. This pathway should be highly competitive and involve an extensive screening and evaluation process to ensure the highest level of quality control and to ensure the candidate met the security requirements for handling advanced defense technologies.
All candidates would start the accessions pathway by earning the title of United States Marine to be inculcated into the Marine Corps culture and to ensure they possess the requisite character, discipline, and basic warfighting skills to operate in an expeditionary setting. These new Marines would be appointed as warrant officers and sent to an intensive military technical school at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). This would ensure their civilian technical skills get translated to military technical competencies. The school should include a professional military education (PME) aspect to incorporate essential instructional elements from the Warrant Officer Basic Course (WOBC) to address the lack of military experience for these new Marines and provide a functional understanding of the Marine Corps. This technical school would incorporate significant instruction on advanced defense technology, practical hands-on technical training, and in the coming years take advantage of the defense innovation resources of the Naval Innovation Center.
Upon completion of this training, these Marines would then report to a small centrally managed unit, initially collocated with the Marine Innovation Unit (MIU). These unit members would be assigned to a newly established occupational field: Science and Technology (S&T) that would consist entirely of warrant officers and limited-duty officers. This unit would be purpose built to be modular and flexible to facilitate the task organization of specialized project teams led by a commissioned officer. These project teams would be focused on the rapid functional employment of emerging warfighting technologies in an operational environment. This lateral entry proposal would be a new paradigm for officer accessions, with a specific direct accession pathway for technical officers, thus allowing these Marines to serve the entirety of their careers as dedicated technical officers and providing the best use of their unique skills.
Professional development in this career track would include the opportunity follow on advanced education, Training with Industry (TWI) fellowships, the Service Chief’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) fellowship, or professional exchanges with the Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC). These “Tech Marines” would serve as a deliberate touch point between the Marine Corps and the defense innovation ecosystem to energize the requirements process, and rapidly integrate existing commercial technologies in novel ways.
Recruitment Efforts
Creating this new personnel structure would require the Marine Corps to modify force structure to achieve the goal of Talent Management 2030 to the desired “invest and retain” model, as opposed to the current “recruit and replace” model. This should be a multiyear adaptation that involves a deliberate force-shaping effort to mature the force over time, with an accompanying continual assessment. Talent management could be overseen with a system like the DIU Gig Eagle project, an artificial intelligence–enabled talent database to make technical skills in the reserve forces accessible through a search engine.
The recruitment effort should employ a specialized recruitment approach, with a quality-over-quantity mindset. Marine reservists working in technology centric civilian jobs would be prime candidates for this program, specifically those working within MIU. This focused recruiting effort could be branded as a “Tech Marine” initiative and presented at events such as those held by the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), and with academic engagement with programs such as Hacking for Defense.
The Marine Corps could also look inward for Marines willing to obtain a specialized technical education. This could be done with a structured contract and existing resources, such as the Career Intermission Program and the GI Bill. Current Marines could be repurposed into technical experts who would then gain education and experience from the private sector before reentering the Marine Corps. In additional, Marines who previously separated and are now working in appropriate careers would have an expedient path to lateral reentry with an attractive and well-established incentive structure. A pathway for commissioned officers with extensive technical backgrounds to reenter the force as limited duty officers would also be available for technically inclined commissioned officers.
These programs would attract a new generation of technical experts by capitalizing on the nation’s technological edge and spirit of innovation. These technical experts will be critical for utilizing new technologies that will enable future warfighting dominance in every clime or place.
1. Christian Brose, The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare (New York: Hachette Books, 2020), xxiii–xxiv.
2. Brose, The Kill Chain, 210–11.
