After eliminating 120mm mortars from its infantry units, the U.S. Marine Corps said it would look to refocus its attention on giving those same elements a new “precision fires” weapon, but gave few details as to what such a system might look like. A new contracting announcement indicates that the service is now considering buying man-portable suicide drones as at least one possible replacement.
On April 23, 2018, the U.S. Marine Corps Rapid Capabilities Office, or MCRCO, a division of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, issued a notice on the U.S. government's main contracting website FedBizOpps, asking vendors to submit information about possible options for a tube-launched loitering munition. At present, the service has no formal plans to purchase these weapons as part of what it is calling the Organic Precision Fires (OPF) program and says it is merely conducting "market research."