{"id":28998,"date":"2023-08-03T21:41:46","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T21:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/08\/03\/marine-corps-now-has-unit-in-indo-pacific-flying-reaper-drones\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T21:01:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T21:01:40","slug":"marine-corps-now-has-unit-in-indo-pacific-flying-reaper-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/asia-pacific\/2023\/08\/03\/marine-corps-now-has-unit-in-indo-pacific-flying-reaper-drones\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine Corps now has unit in Indo-Pacific flying Reaper drones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Marine squadron has become the only Marine unit in the Indo-Pacific to reach an early operational milestone with MQ-9 Reaper drones, according to the Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3, also known as the Phantoms, on Wednesday celebrated reaching initial operational capability with the remotely piloted aircraft at a ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/450577\/vmu-3-reaches-mq-9a-initial-operational-capability\" target=\"_blank\">Marine Corps news release.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the Marine Corps has undergone sweeping transformation with an eye toward potential conflict with China, the service\u2019s leadership has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2022\/05\/09\/marines-force-design-2030-update-refocuses-on-reconnaissance\/\">increasingly emphasized reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The MQ-9A Reaper, which is primarily <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ga-asi.com\/remotely-piloted-aircraft\/mq-9a\" target=\"_blank\">designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance<\/a>, has an endurance of greater than 20 hours and can fly to an altitude of up to 25,000 feet, according to the Corps\u2019 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aviation.marines.mil\/Portals\/11\/Documents\/Aviation%20Plan\/2022%20Marine%20Aviation%20Plan%20FINAL%20April%202022.pdf\">aviation plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2023\/06\/23\/who-can-fly-the-marine-corps-reaper-drones\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mq-9.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Who can fly the Marine Corps\u2019 Reaper drones?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">For now, only commissioned officers can pilot the Marine Corps&#039; MQ-9 aircraft.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Phantoms will provide aerial reconnaissance for the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, a new kind of Marine unit based in Hawaii created as part of the Force Design restructuring, according to the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2023\/03\/16\/marine-littoral-regiment-fends-off-traditional-regiment-in-exercise\/\">The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment<\/a> is supposed to be a \u201cstand-in force\u201d ever-present within reach of strikes from China. The regiment is set <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2022\/12\/28\/new-in-2023-pacific-marine-unit-to-hit-initial-operational-capability\/\">to reach initial operational capability<\/a> in September 2023 and full operational capability two years after that, a Marine spokesman previously told Marine Corps Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although the drones will serve as \u201cthe airborne quarterback\u201d for the littoral regiment, in the words of Marine Aircraft Group 24 commander Col. William Heiken, they can also be flown for other purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The squadron\u2019s Reapers can support \u201ca wide range of operations such as coastal and border surveillance, weapons tracking, embargo enforcement, humanitarian\/disaster assistance, support of peacekeeping and counter-narcotic operations,\u201d Marine spokesman Maj. Jordan Fox said in a March statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3, abbreviated VMU-3, has flown a variety of uncrewed aircraft since its 2008 activation, according to the Wednesday news release. The squadron received its first two Reaper drones in April and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marforpac.marines.mil\/News\/Article\/Article\/3438001\/vmu-3-takes-off-mq-9a-certified-safe-for-flight\/\">flew its first Reaper<\/a> in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first Marine unit to operate the Reaper was the Yuma, Arizona-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.3rdmaw.marines.mil\/Units\/MAG-13\/VMU-1\/\">Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1<\/a>, which received its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marines.mil\/News\/News-Display\/Article\/2766284\/3rd-maw-procures-marine-corps-first-mq-9a-reaper\/\" target=\"_blank\">first of the aircraft in 2021.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The drones will serve as \u201cthe airborne quarterback\u201d for the new littoral regiment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":64904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":45,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[45,160,11,16,36,27,167],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3426],"class_list":["post-28998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-naval","category-newsletters","category-unmanned","category-unmanned-systems"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3DP2H3LFZFAP5GJXTUZ5IZYUPU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2023\/08\/03\/marine-corps-now-has-unit-in-indo-pacific-flying-reaper-drones\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marine Corps now has unit in Indo-Pacific flying Reaper drones - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The drones will serve as \u201cthe airborne quarterback\u201d for the new littoral regiment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marine Corps now has unit in Indo-Pacific flying Reaper drones\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The drones will serve as \u201cthe airborne quarterback\u201d for the new littoral regiment.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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