Those whose job it is to enable command and control (C2) for commanders were confronted in 2014 with a sobering demonstration that the way the Navy and Marine Corps have been trained could get people killed in the next fight. In 2014, Ukrainian separatists supported by irregular Russian forces used electronic warfare (EW) to identify Ukrainian positions, disrupt communications, and ultimately kill significant numbers of Ukrainian soldiers. This has resulted in changes to the way the Marine Corps has conducted recent large-scale exercises, in which the use of EW and counter-EW technology has been a central theme.
Marine Air Ground Task Force Warfighting Exercise (MWX) 5-20 incorporated these changes into a force-on-force exercise that eventually highlighted some concerns about them.