{"id":43976,"date":"2018-11-16T22:15:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T22:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/11\/16\/with-reapers-in-the-sky-helmand-becomes-a-testing-ground-for-the-corps-future-fight\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:49:08","slug":"with-reapers-in-the-sky-helmand-becomes-a-testing-ground-for-the-corps-future-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/2018\/11\/16\/with-reapers-in-the-sky-helmand-becomes-a-testing-ground-for-the-corps-future-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"With Reapers in the sky, Helmand becomes a testing ground for the Corps’ future fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Corps already controls an array of small tactical drones like the RQ-21 Blackjack, but it lacks the institutional knowledge to operate larger drones, such as the MQ-9 Reaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a small group of Marines with Task Force Southwest, operating out of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, now have MQ-9 Reaper support organic to the unit, according to Capt. John Roberts, a spokesman for Task Force Southwest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the MQ-9 currently is being piloted by contractors, the Corps says the goal is for Marines to eventually pilot the Reapers on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A Group 5 drone under development by Bell seeks to meet the Marine Corps’ needs for a ‘do-it-all’ drone. (Bell)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a mission the Corps is not accustomed to, as piloting large group five drones like the Reaper generally falls under the purview of the Air Force. But it serves as a testing case for the Corps\u2019 ability to manage its future mega MUX drone<\/a>, still in the early stages of research and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing able to deploy and master techniques in areas like Helmand province ensures the Marine Corps will maintain its role as a crisis response force, always ready to respond to the most advance enemy forces, regardless of location,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAs the threat of near-peer and peer-level enemies continues to grow, our efforts here will ensure we stay ahead of potential enemies and are prepared for any future conflicts that might arise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Corps doesn\u2019t have a program of record for the Reaper, in June the Defense Department announced a nearly $40 million-dollar award to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. to provide unmanned aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support using an unarmed contractor owned MQ-9 for Task Force Southwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Corps\u2019 contractor flown Reaper has been supporting Task Force Southwest since at least the last iteration, according to Roberts. The small group of Marine advisers is currently in its third rotation having just taken the helm of the Helmand battle field at the end of October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Corps’ goal to pilot it\u2019s own Reapers is the latest development spotlighting the Marines’ growing reliance on unmanned systems as it operates in austere environments across the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Corps is also amid testing of controlling 15 loitering munition <\/a>drones from a single user and so far, the Marines have successfully operated six at a single time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in July, the Corps made a step forward in its transition to the RQ-21 Blackjack as the RQ-7B Shadow made its last flight in Hawaii. The Corps intends to equip the RQ-21 with electronic warfare capabilities giving grunts down range added lethality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Marines attached to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit\u2019s (MEU) Unmanned Aerial Surveillance unit, launch an RQ-21A Blackjack aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS San Diego (LPD 22), Sept. 26, 2017. (Lance Cpl. Jeremy Laboy\/ Marine Corps)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The RQ-7B Shadow<\/a> has been in the Corps\u2019 inventory for nearly a decade, racking up deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and supporting recent operations against ISIS militants in the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the Corps is still in the early stages of procuring a future group five drone known as the MUX. The Corps wants its future sea drone to do everything from electronic warfare, kinetic strike, communications relay, airborne early warning and intelligence collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Corps sees its new MUX drone as the key to operating independent from the Navy\u2019s aircraft carrier strike groups. The MUX\u2019s expected airborne warning system will fill the void of the Navy\u2019s E-2D Hawkeye, but the Corps is not likely to have a fully operational platform until sometime in 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Corps\u2019 MQ-9 in Afghanistan is part of the early preliminary stages for the Corps to eventually manage and fly a large drone in a combat environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTask Force Southwest, and the mission in Afghanistan, also serves as a testing ground for new tactics and employment of key capabilities for our Marines,\u201d Roberts explained. \u201cThe Marines deployed with us will return to the operating forces with tangible combat experience in the employment of ISR, fires, and security that will improve the readiness of the Marine Corps as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reaper also brings necessary intelligence and reconnaissance capabilities to the small group of Marine advisers as the situation in Afghanistan continues to worsen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a recent report from the government watchdog group Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, the Afghan government only controls about 55 percent of its districts, the lowest level since SIGAR began reporting the figure in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conditions in Helmand appear to remain in a stalemate as district control between Taliban militants and government forces has remained unchanged over the last three quarters, according to SIGAR. Nine of 14 districts in Helmand are controlled or influenced by militants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York Times<\/a> reported that nearly 28,000 Afghan forces have been killed since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many places across Afghanistan were mired in violence during the October parliamentary elections, Roberts told Marine Corps Times that voter participation in Helmand was higher than expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Security forces patrol after a bomb explosion near a polling station in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018. Tens of thousands of Afghan forces fanned out across the country as voting began Saturday in parliamentary elections that followed a campaign marred by relentless violence. (AP Photo\/Massoud Hossaini)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That was in part due to efforts by the previous two Task Force Southwest deployments that helped expand the security bubble around the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Taliban were kept out of the cities and the violence stayed on the periphery of the security belt,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur focus remains on training and advising the ANA and ANP at the Corps, Zone, Provincial, and Brigade levels enabling them to continue the Afghan-led, Afghan-owned campaign to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A small group of Marines with Task Force Southwest now have MQ-9 Reaper support organic to the unit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27122,"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":15,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3472],"class_list":["post-43976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"EUPIBEATL5BN3CR5RPM5VHKVTM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2018\/11\/16\/with-reapers-in-the-sky-helmand-becomes-a-testing-ground-for-the-corps-future-fight\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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