General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has delivered an MQ-9A Reaper Block 5 extended range (ER) unmanned aircraft system to the US Marine Corps.
The delivery will enhance the US Marine Corps’ operational capability in terms of range and endurance.
It can be field-retrofitted with features such as reinforced landing gear and wing-borne fuel pods, which extend its endurance to more than 30 hours against the previous 27 hours.
“It provides long-endurance, persistent surveillance capabilities, with full-motion video and synthetic aperture radar/moving target indicator/maritime mode radar,” General Atomics Aeronautical Systems explained.
“An extremely reliable aircraft, MQ-9A ER is equipped with a fault-tolerant flight control system and a triple-redundant avionics system architecture. It is engineered to meet and exceed manned aircraft reliability standards.”
For Operational Testing
The Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VMX-1) will operate the aircraft to perform the tests.
Apart from the trials, the VMX-1 supports the development of marine aviation tactics, techniques, and procedures.
“The Marine Corps is building out its ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) capabilities with this new aircraft,” General Atomics President David R. Alexander said.
“We are excited to see what VMX-1 does in terms of operational tests in preparation for pushing new capabilities into the field.”
The service has already fielded a total of 18 MQ-9As and awaits the delivery of two more by the end of this year.
Additional Capabilities
Earlier in March, the Marine Corps received the first SkyTower II airborne network extension pod for the aircraft.
The extension pod enhances the aircraft’s cross-domain communication capabilities, linking both aerial and ground combat elements.
Additional tools to be integrated into the aircraft include an electronic warfare pod, maritime domain awareness pod, detect-and-avoid system, proliferated low-Earth orbit command and control, and smart sensors.
