Marine Corps looking to make MQ-9 drones stealthy with special pods
"It can mimic things that are sent to it that it detects, turn it around and send it back. So it becomes a hole, it becomes a black hole, it becomes mostly undetectable," Gen. Eric Smith said.
BY
JON HARPER
JULY 2, 2024
MQ-9A (General Atomics image)
The Marines are trying to make their Reaper drones more difficult to detect by equipping them with a secretive high-tech pod that can counter enemy sensors, according to the service’s top officer.
The Marine Corps is acquiring MQ-9 long-endurance unmanned aerial systems to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and to serve as a secure communications gateway and network bridge for the joint force. Officials envision the platforms exchanging data with satellites, other drones and aircraft, ships, expeditionary advanced bases, land maneuver forces, ground control stations and land-based sensors.
The littoral combat regiments that the Corps is standing up are expected to receive the drones, which are built by General Atomics.
“What they bring with them is a sensing and making-sense capability,” Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said Tuesday at a Brookings Institution event.
https://defensescoop.com/2024/07/02/marine-corps-mq-9-drones-stealthy-secretive-pods-eric-smith/
