Hunter Warrior Advanced Warfighting Experiment
The Hunter Warrior Advanced Warfighting Experiment was a 12-day military exercise conducted from approximately March 2 to March 14, 1997, at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center 29 Palms in Southern California. Organized by the newly renamed Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, it was the largest experiment of its kind at the time, designed to explore methods of increasing the area of influence and combat effectiveness of Marine units through experimental equipment and new warfighting tactics and techniques.
| Date | 1997-03-02 |
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Objectives
Hunter Warrior was structured around three primary objectives:
- Tactical operations on the dispersed, non-contiguous battlefield — Examining how small units perform against a numerically superior force on a battlefield with no defined front, flank, or rear areas.
- C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence) — Creating and testing a shared digital communications network for information sharing across multiple battlefield areas, exploring the "single battle concept."
- Enhancement of fire support and targeting — Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of all indirect fire to dominate a broad, dispersed battlefield.
Phases
The experiment operated in three phases:
- Phase One: Reconnaissance, surveillance, shaping, and deception operations by both the experimental special-purpose marine air-ground task force (SPMAGTF-X) and the opposing aggressor force.
- Phase Two: Targeting for initial engagements by air and long-range indirect fire missions.
- Phase Three: Major night movement by the operating forces, additional targeting for the task force, and culmination with a mobile raid on opposing forces.
Naval Involvement
While primarily a Marine Corps exercise, the US Navy played an integral but less publicly acknowledged role. In 1995, Vice Admiral Robert Spain, then Commander of Naval Air Force Pacific, proposed in a report titled "An Operational Examination of Sea-Based Aerial Fire Support for Engaged Troops" a new mission involving carrier tactical aviation supporting troops ashore. At the behest of Admiral J. Johnson, Chief of Naval Operations, General Charles Krulak, Commandant of the Marine Corps, requested that the Commander of the Naval Strike Air Warfare Center in Fallon, Nevada assemble air crews from Fallon and Naval Air Station Lemoore, California to explore the "Hunter Air" concept during Hunter Warrior. This naval component was described as an adjunct "bolted on late in the planning stage."
The Center for Naval Analyses, a Navy FFRDC administered by the CNA Corporation, published summary findings alongside the Marine Corps Combat Development Center.
UAP Significance
The Hunter Warrior experiment is significant in UAP research because of the encounter reported by Rodrik Castle, a sergeant with VMA-513 Flying Nightmares, who along with five other Marines witnessed an enormous silent black triangular craft accompanied by approximately 30 armed, unmarked operators in all black near Emerson Dry Lake during the experiment. The incident occurred within FAA restricted airspace R2501C.
UAP Gerb theorizes that the Navy's last-minute addition to Hunter Warrior provided cover for clandestine operations involving alien reproduction vehicles and special mission units that wished to operate alongside "blue" (friendly) assets while maintaining secrecy — training and running practice operations hidden from conventional military participants. The theory proposes that NAWDC and NAS Lemoore engaged black-ops crash retrieval or tactical teams in war game exercises to practice operations, recoveries, and missions alongside blue assets without detection. Castle's accidental encounter represented a failure of this directive.
This theory is supported by the direction of the craft's departure — to the northwest toward R2508 airspace, Edwards Air Force Base, and the Antelope Valley — a corridor associated with numerous other alleged ARV operations and triangle sightings.