R 021633Z Aug 16
ALMAR 024/16
MSGID/GENADMIN/CMC WASHINGTON DC DMCS//
SUBJ/SEA DRAGON 2025//
GENTEXT/REMARKS/1.  Background.  Over the last 15 years, we have fought the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and continued to respond to crises around the globe, during which Marines and Sailors have preserved and enhanced the professional warfighting legacy of our Corps.  We know, however, that future threats will evolve in ways that the current force is not postured to address.  Our potential and current adversaries continually innovate and develop new capabilities many of which now equal or exceed our own.  This unstable and increasingly dangerous global situation is further complicated by a constrained resource environment.  Despite this challenging fiscal environment we must continue current operations, reset our equipment, and maintain our warfighting readiness, while at the same time, innovate and modernize the force.  Therefore, it is imperative that we aggressively wargame and experiment with new ways to operate and develop a Marine Corps that retains and improves its warfighting edge.
2.  Orientation.  Advance to Contact laid out the requirement to establish an experimentation roadmap to capitalize on existing and emerging technology and Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) level exercises at squad, company, battalion, squadron, and MAGTF levels. Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration has been directed to conduct a comprehensive review of our force structure and organization during FY 16-17 based on the essential elements of our Marine Corps operating concept, an expeditionary force for the
21st century.  Our experimentation focus for the upcoming year will center on Third Battalion, Fifth Marines as the base unit of an experimental force.  This battalion will be reconfigured, re-equipped, and will receive additional training as it progresses through its training and deployment.  The assignment of temporary experiment forces is nothing new within the Marine Corps, nor is deploying units with experimental Table of Organization and Equipment. Examples in the last century can be found in Culebra during the 1920s and Sea Dragon during the 1990s. 3.  Methodology.  Sea Dragon 2025 institutionalizes our campaign of learning process and will blend innovative ideas, concepts, continuous and iterative wargaming, and deliberate experimentation to refine the Marine Corps of the future. It is a commitment to innovation through experimentation. It is a quest for solutions to the problems of tomorrow.  Sea Dragon 2025 is our engine for experimentation that consists of three phases.  Phase One exploration, focuses on exploring and experimenting with emerging concepts.  Phase Two refinement, identifies and improves upon those viable concepts discovered during phase one.  Phase Three validation, confirms the effectiveness of Phase Two refined concepts in preparation for the establishment of new doctrine.  Commencing in July 2016, Phase One of Sea Dragon will focus on a series of live-force, limited objective experiments during scheduled pre-deployment training program events to include Integrated Training Exercise, Expeditionary Operations Training Group, Pre-Deployment Academic Training, Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit's Certification Exercise, and Exercise Talisman Sabre 17.  Phase One will end with an End User Assessment conference in September 2017.
4.  As we progress through this process, it is essential that all Marines think about our future and embrace Sea Dragon 2025 innovation and experimentation.  We need all Marines to participate,follow along, and be engaged mentally as we move forward.  Sea Dragon 2025 is a whole of the Marine Corps effort to develop the capabilities required to meet the warfighting challenges of today and tomorrow.  At the end, we will field a Marine Corps ready for the challenges of the future. 
5.  Semper Fidelis, Robert B. Neller, General, U.S. Marine Corps, Commandant of the Marine Corps.//