PEO LS Interns' Digital Wargame Boost USMC C-UAS Defense
by U.S. Marine Corps Helena Yared, PEO LS
Program Executive Officer Land Systems
December 1, 2025

This summer, Program Executive Office Land Systems (PEO LS ) hosted two interns for eight weeks through the Defense Civilian Training Corp’s (DCTC) program.

David Appelt, a rising senior at Virginia Tech, majoring in cybersecurity management analytics, and Rithwick Erabelly, a rising senior at Purdue University, majoring in aerospace engineering, made their mark at PEO LS by developing a digital wargame to help Marine Corps small unit leaders strategically deploy counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) capabilities ... an increasingly significant part of modern-day warfare.

PEO LS leadership embraced the innovative wargame and DCTC internship program as a way to give college students a glimpse of working in the government sector in hopes of building a talent pipeline for the acquisition workforce. The project is a reminder that the success of PEO LS programs depends on the ability to cultivate a highly effective and collaborative workforce – one that thinks critically, engages, and innovates with partners and stakeholders to foster real solutions.

The two interns worked closely with Program Manager Ground Based Air Defense (GBAD) on their interactive wargaming training module, the concept being one discussed previously by the program.

Their game, titled “Whack-A-Drone”, is a 2-D platform designed to help users’ assess where to place their assets in specific mission scenarios to combat threatening drone swarms.

“The intern’s wargaming simulator gets after one of the more complicated training shortfalls the ground-based air defense community has,” said Master GySgt Jacob Bucinski, PM GBAD. “Their design provides a method to train employment in a low cost, non-manpower intensive, yet easily accessible package. Being able to provide a leader feedback on how effective their employment was is incredibly valuable.”

While running these exercises in real life would provide the most accurate results, trainings of this nature are extremely high risk and costly. To produce results that would most closely mimic real-life outcome, Appelt coded thousands of possible drone swarm scenarios by pulling different management types to simulate what would happen in a real mission with real warfighters.

“The point of the game is to bring in all of the counter UAS assets that the Marine Corps has right now in [program manager] GBAD, to teach the Marine how to create an integrated air defense system,” Erabelly explained. “A Marine may know how to operate the Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) on an individual level, how to command it and strategically place it at different points. The Marine may not know how to use all these systems together, and make sure they’re covering the objective points against different types of [drone] swarms.”

A memorable moment of recognition for the pair was Master Sgt. Brandon Meadors, MADIS training subject matter expert for GBAD, telling them that this training has a chance to save some Marines. This was valuable considering Meadors has been looking for a digital solution to teach these concepts for several years now. Appelt and Erabelly describe Meadors as “one of our biggest supporters from the uniformed side.”

“David Appelt's and Rithwik Erabelly's bold initiative to create a simplistic wargame that incorporates the aspects of the Integrated Air Defense Systems can not only develop our Corps leaders, but it also has the potential to save lives,” said Master Sgt. Meadors. “David and Rithwik created an application that would serve as a foundation for other interns to build upon and make improvements. This embodies the true definition of selflessness.”

Programs like DCTC serve not only as an opportunity for college students to gain hands-on-experience, they’re also a great way to bring fresh perspectives and innovation to the workforce. For organizations like PEO LS, this program bridges the gap between the next generation of talent and the skills needed to meet the dynamic requirements of Force Design and modern mission needs.

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