UAS flown in Middle East by USMC crew on another continent--a first
NewsApril 27, 2020
SAN DIEGO. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) reports that U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) pilots and sensor operators from Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1 (VMU-1) recently conducted their first operational flight of an MQ-9A Reaper unmanned aircraft system (UAS) in the Middle East, with the operators located in Yuma, Arizona.
With the oversight of the GA-ASI team, the VMU-1 “Watchdog” crews took control of a company-owned/company-operated (COCO) multisensor reconnaissance-equipped MQ-9A supporting forward-deployed Marines. This USMC achievement comes shortly after surpassing 7,000 hours of COCO flight operations since September 2018.
VMU-1 has been leasing MQ-9A Reaper aircraft to fulfill its need for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) equipment in the Middle East.
