Progress at warfighting lab measured in ounces.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Marine Corps

* QUANTICO MARINE BASE, Va. -- Brig. Gen. Randolf Alles wants everyone to know that developing meals-ready-to-eat for dogs is serious business at the Marine Corps warfighting laboratory.

"Handlers have to carry dry dog food. It's heavy, and they have to carry water beyond that."

The commanding general of the lab said reducing the weight Marines must bear in the field is one of their primary goals. While "doggie MREs" may elicit some grins, researchers are looking for any advantage in their effort to shave ounces off a leatherneck's weight load.

"It's a small effort," he told National Defense. "But in this particular challenge, you're not going to find any one item that's going to instantly make him 30 pounds lighter."

The warfighting lab's budget is about $30 million per year. It is a "little fish" in the defense science and technology world compared to giants such as the Office of Naval Research and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, he said. Many projects designed to benefit the Corps are carried out at ONR, so Alles wears a second hat as vice chief of naval research. Marine Corps research and development is also spread out at offices such as the joint improvised explosive device defeat organization and the joint program executive office for chemical and biological defense.

Most of the lab's unique programs concentrate on improving the lives of Marines on foot.

"I would hope that 10 years from now I am able to lighten their load by 50 percent. I want them to be networked better, with more robust communications," Alles said of the lab's long-term vision. He would also like to see Marines able to call in close air support or artillery at the squad level, which would require secure networks.

The service's challenge during the next decade, and beyond, will be equipping and training its forces to fight the so-called "hybrid wars," Alles said. Such wars will be similar to the recent Israel-Lebanon conflict where irregular forces used both conventional and unconventional weapons and tactics to gain an advantage over a more powerful adversary.

In a hybrid war, opponents may use IEDs or makeshift weapons of mass destruction. "Maybe they don't have a full-blown high order nuclear weapon, but they have dirty weapons or chemical or biological contaminants," Alles said.

For example, Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon used tactics similar to insurgents in Iraq, while also successfully launching a sophisticated anti-ship cruise missile at an Israeli...