For the first time in more than a decade, the Marine Corps has published official doctrine on how it employs deception — a tactic used by militaries throughout history to deliberately deceive the enemy through decoys, demonstrations, ruses and manipulation of information.
The doctrine, titled simply “Deception,” was published late last month and supersedes a manual from 12 years ago, according to service officials. The need for a cohesive policy on deception was identified in the 2023 update to the service’s Force Design campaign, a reorganization effort meant to prepare for a potential future fight in the Pacific against China.
Within that campaign, planners said that deception was one of the “issues requiring further analysis,” and last summer Marine Corps officials got to work defining exactly what that would mean for Marines down to the lowest levels of the force.
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According to the doctrine, deception “is a deliberate distortion of reality imposed on another where the deceiver gains an advantage,” and planners intend every Marine to be familiar with its intricacies.
The tactic has logged itself as vital to historical military campaigns, from the legend of the Trojan Horse to a more recent example like the “Ghost Army” of World War II, which used inflatable vehicles and fake radio traffic to dupe German forces.
“Sun Tzu…
