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U.S. Marines Develop Camouflaged Trench Logistics to Sustain Dispersed Operations in Hostile Zones.
U.S. Marines with Headquarters and Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, were photographed guiding an Oshkosh MTVR into a trench-based logistics position during Exercise Steel Knight 25 at Camp Pendleton. The imagery underscores how the Marine Corps is treating resupply as a “contested logistics” problem, where trucks, fuel, and ammo have to survive detection and attack while supporting dispersed units.
On 12 December 2025, U.S. Marines training at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton highlighted a less visible but increasingly central requirement of modern warfare: sustaining dispersed forces under threat, as reported by DVIDS. During Exercise Steel Knight 25, Marines from Headquarters and Service Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, were photographed guiding an Oshkosh Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) into a dug-in logistics position. The imagery shows medium tactical trucks operating from below-grade bays covered by low-profile camouflage netting, a configuration more commonly associated with survivability and signature reduction than with routine resupply. This setup reflects the emergence of “contested logistics” as a planning baseline, with rear areas now assumed to be exposed to surveillance, drones, and long-range fires rather than protected by distance.
U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton used camouflaged, below-grade trench logistics bays during Exercise Steel Knight 25 to resupply dispersed units while reducing exposure to surveillance, drones, and long-range fires (Picture Source: DVIDS)
The photographs depict a purpose-built trench-style logistics area composed of multiple separated bays cut into the earth and covered with low-profile camouflage nets. Vehicles appear to be positioned below grade, with earthen walls on both sides and controlled entry ramps that impose slow, deliberate movement in and out of each position. The spacing between covered bays suggests an intent to avoid concentrating trucks and supplies in one location, reducing visual and thermal signatures and limiting cascading damage if one section is detected or hit. The layout echoes practices seen in the war in Ukraine, where both Russian and Ukrainian forces have multiplied small dug-in vehicle and supply points to complicate targeting by drones and artillery.
Steel Knight is described as an annual exercise intended to strengthen the Navy–Marine Corps team’s ability to respond forward, integrate across domains, and sustain a Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF). A dug-in logistics node directly supports that objective by aligning sustainment practices with a dispersed operating model, in which combat elements may operate for extended periods in smaller, separated detachments. In that context, the sustainment system has to move, pause, refuel, rearm, and conduct maintenance without creating a single identifiable “logistics park” that becomes an obvious and lucrative target. This approach mirrors combat experience in Ukraine, where units have learned that any large, static concentration of vehicles or supplies quickly attracts attention from reconnaissance drones feeding artillery and loitering munitions.
The underlying logic reflects how modern battlefields compress the distinction between front and rear. Persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), fast target handoff, and longer-range precision effects can place supply routes, refuel points, and support areas under continuous observation and at real risk. The Russo-Ukrainian war has shown how networks of reconnaissance UAVs, commercial quadcopters, and first-person-view (FPV) strike drones are routinely used to locate and attack logistics columns, ammunition dumps, and repair sites well behind the frontline. Logistics activity also produces recognizable patterns that can be exploited, including vehicle clustering, repeated loading cycles, predictable movement times, and heat or dust signatures. Digging in and using camouflage does not remove those vulnerabilities, but it can reduce exposure, complicate identification from above, and provide basic physical protection from blast, fragmentation, and small FPV warheads.
The use of the MTVR is operationally significant because it is a primary vehicle family for Marine Corps distribution tasks, from moving bulk supplies and equipment to supporting forward sustainment points and combat trains. Concealing a vehicle of this size requires deliberate earthworks, disciplined traffic management, and ground-guided entry to prevent rollovers or collisions in narrow approaches. That inevitably adds friction and slows throughput, but the tradeoff prioritizes continuity of sustainment under threat conditions over pure efficiency. This mirrors Ukrainian and Russian practice, where convoys often disperse, use covered approaches, or park under improvised shelters to limit their exposure to drone detection and rapid fire missions.
For the 1st Marine Logistics Group, the scene provides a concrete example of survivability-focused sustainment training that is not commonly shown so clearly in exercise imagery. It illustrates the integration of basic field engineering principles into everyday logistics operations, combining earthworks, dispersion, camouflage, and controlled movement to keep a node functional while reducing its signature. If adopted more broadly, this approach implies increased emphasis on camouflage discipline, route control, alternate bay usage, deception measures, and rapid relocation procedures, alongside the core tasks of distribution and maintenance. It also shows that lessons drawn from recent conflicts, including the heavy use of FPV and reconnaissance drones in Ukraine against logistics targets, are beginning to shape how U.S. forces rehearse their own sustainment posture.
The trench-style logistics site built during Steel Knight 25 shows Marines rehearsing sustainment in a posture designed to remain operational despite surveillance, targeting, and potential disruption. By operating an MTVR from a camouflaged, below-grade bay, the exercise imagery signals that logistics nodes may need to be treated as exposed assets from the outset, rather than as activities safely conducted in open rear areas. In a world where FPV drones, loitering munitions, and ISR platforms routinely range deep into the battlespace, as demonstrated daily in Ukraine, survivable sustainment becomes a determining factor in whether dispersed units can keep moving, fighting, and maintaining tempo over time.