Three years into Force Design 2030, the United States Marine Corps has evolved into a leaner, more agile force designed to fight and win against the nation’s stated adversaries, with a strategic focus on the Indo-Pacific. Aligning with the Department of Defense’s strategic pivot away from the Global War on Terrorism, this transformation relies not just on technological advancements and a structural reorganization but also on the strategic use of wargames—analytical tools used to simulate aspects of warfare at the tactical, operational, and strategic level.

The 2018 National Defense Strategy warns that U.S. adversaries are actively challenging the long-standing rules-based international order, thus “creating a security environment more complex and volatile than any we have experienced in recent memory.” Building on the Pentagon’s observations, Gen. David H. Berger, then-commandant of the Marine Corps, released his seminal 2019 Commandant’s Planning Guidance, in which he proposed sweeping changes aimed at transforming the Corps from its established land-focused role in the Middle East into a naval expeditionary force-in-readiness primed for active engagement in contested maritime spaces within the Indo-Pacific region.

“The Marine Corps requires unmanned air, surface, and ground systems to fully exploit our inherent expeditionary nature and capabilities. When operating forward, in small groups, under austere conditions, the ability to maximize unmanned systems to create outsized effects for our allies and against our adversaries is a key element of our future success.” - Gen. Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps