U.S. Marine Corps Receives First Reaper Drone Ordered Under Joint Contract
The United States Navy has announced the delivery of the first of eight MQ-9A Reapers ordered by the United States Marine Corps in a joint contract with the United States Air Force.
The Reaper was delivered to Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron (VMU)-1 at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. The squadron will use the Reaper for operations in Indo-Pacific Command’s area of responsibility, filling an immediate need for a long-range, long endurance Group 5 Unmanned Aerial System that will serve as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and data relay platform in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Reaper is one of eight on order by the Marine Corps under the Air Force’s Agile Reaper Enterprise Solution, which uses an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract to procure MQ-9As for United States and export operators more quickly. According to the Navy, use of the contract has allowed the Marine Corps to accelerate standing up the Medium Altitude Long Endurance portion of the Marine Air Ground Task Force’s (MAGTF) Uncrewed Expeditionary (MUX) family of systems, with the MUX program planning for the eventual procurement of a total of 16 MQ-9As. Unlike the Air Force, the Marine Corps does not currently plan to arm its Reapers, focusing on using them for ISR and data networking as part of Force Design 2030.
“The U.S. Air Force has been a great partner and a major enabler in the Marine Corps’ pursuit to acquire group 5 UAS,” said Lt. Col. Leigh Irwin, Marine Corps MQ-9 program director for PMA-266, Naval Air Systems Command’s Multi-Mission Tactical Unmanned Air System program team. “Group 5 UAS will give the Marines the ability to conduct ISR and network extensions in support of the MAGTF in support of stand-in forces and the Joint Force.”
The Marine Corps currently has two operational MQ-9s, having purchased them in August 2021 after previously leasing them from manufacturer General Atomics in a contractor-owned, contractor-operated arrangement that started in 2018.