Flesh and blood U.S. Marines won't spearhead tomorrow's beach assaults on Chinese held islands in the South China Sea. They'll leave that job to "metal Marines."

Storming a beach ahead of any Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed from an expeditionary strike group will be tracked ground combat drones armed with .50 caliber heavy machine guns or 7.62 mm M249 light machine guns, and a swarm of aerial drones to locate and attack the enemy.

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"If the first thing ashore in the next conflict is a Marine, we will fail," said Brig. Gen. Julian Alford, Vice Chief Of Naval Research and Commanding Officer, Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Futures Directorate, Combat Development and Integration

"A machine needs to be in there."

An exercise at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California on April 26 showcased dozens of technologies that give Marines and the U.S. Navy the upper hand in fighting the next generation of wars in the Pacific and elsewhere.

The exercise was part of the Advanced Technology Exercise 2017 -- a collaborative technology expo sponsored by Marine Corps Combat Development and the Integration Command and Naval Research Development, Test and Evaluation Command.

Vendors, contractors and naval laboratories revealed equipment being tested or already in use, and demonstrated advanced applications to be used in the future. Among the more interesting and more practical were robots armed with machine guns and an android tablet that spots the enemy.

A tracked drone that can accomplish both combat and non-combat functions is MUTT or Multi Utility Tactical Transport. A demonstration at the expo showed MUTT debouching from an Armored Assault Vehicle to lead an attack on a beach ahead of Marines.

MUTT is an unmanned vehicle controlled by as operator who drives it and fires its heavy or light machine gun. It can also be used to lug around heavy gear, thereby lightening the load carried by individual Marines.

Kilswitch is an android tablet Marines can use in beach assaults to see where the enemy is. The tablet receives data from a Puma drone flying 100 meters to 300 meters above the ground.

Commanders aboard a Navy ship can use the tablet to scan landing zones before a Marine attack.

TagsU.S Marines, metal Marines, Marine Expeditionary Unit, beach assault, Brig. Gen. Julian Alford, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Advanced Technology Exercise 2017, MUTT, Multi Utility Tactical Transport, Kilswitch, Android tablet