NAVAIR introduced the primary flight of the unmanned plane with new digital help and enhanced cross-domain comms.
In a put up on social media, the Naval Air Techniques Command (NAVAIR) introduced the primary flight of an MQ-9A Reaper, assigned to Air Take a look at and Analysis Squadron (UX) 24, geared up with the SkyTower II and RDESS/SOAR pods. The Command outlined this as a crucial step towards Preliminary Operational Functionality (IOC) later this yr.
The pods’ names had been explicitly talked about, with solely their capabilities talked about, nonetheless they’re clearly seen within the accompanying picture. In truth, the picture exhibits the MQ-9 geared up with the SkyTower II pod and an exterior gasoline tank underneath the left wing and the RDESS/SOAR pod underneath the suitable wing, along with a nonetheless unknown pod on the centerline which could hosts the communications relay capabilities of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Reapers.
The MQ-9 Reaper simply flew its first flight with new digital help and enhanced cross-domain comms. This development is a crucial step towards Preliminary Operational Functionality later this yr, making certain this unmanned plane brings unmatched Lethality and Readiness to the fleet pic.twitter.com/4456HhE1Sk
— NAVAIR (@NAVAIRNews) August 12, 2025
No extra particulars have been offered, and it’s unclear when the primary flight happened. Beforehand, NAVAIR introduced that in February 2025 UX-24 loaded the brand new SkyTower II pod onto the plane for the primary time and carried out preliminary energy on checks.
SkyTower II
The SkyTower II pod is an airborne network-extension pod developed to considerably improve cross-domain communications and information sharing throughout disparate forces. Designed by GALT and built-in by way of NAVAIR’s middle-tier acquisition strategy, it’s set to ship its preliminary operational functionality quickly.
NAVAIR says the pod is required to execute the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) idea of operations by offering tactically related operational communications and information sharing capabilities with many forces in help of the MQ-9 Reapers’ operational mission. SkyTower II permits MQ-9s to behave as airborne “digital quarterbacks,” serving as important ISR and communications relay platforms, a functionality particularly crucial for U.S. Marine Corps operations within the Indo-Pacific’s expansive and contested atmosphere.
UX-24 loaded the brand new pod onto the plane on Feb. 25, 2025, conducting preliminary energy on checks, step one into integrating the brand new functionality into the plane platform. Again then, NAVAIR talked about that, over the subsequent a number of months, UX-24 was scheduled to conduct last take a look at occasions earlier than delivering the upgraded MQ-9s to the fleet.
Marine Unmanned Aerial Car Squadron (VMU) 3, primarily based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, would be the first to deploy with this new system on its MQ-9s in 2026. VMU-3 has a pivotal position in advancing Marine Corps capabilities in reconnaissance, surveillance, and goal acquisition missions throughout the Indo-Pacific area.
RDESS/SOAR pod
The RDESS/SOAR (Reaper Protection Digital Help System/Scalable Open Structure Reconnaissance) will not be actually new to the Reaper, because it has already been noticed on VMU-3’s MQ-9s. Developed by Normal Atomics and L3Harris, it was first initially examined by the Air Power in 2021, however it’s not clear when the Marine Corps acquired it.
Normal Atomics describes the system as a broad spectrum, passive Digital Help Measure (ESM) payload designed to gather and geo-locate indicators of curiosity from standoff ranges. This permits the Reaper to conduct digital sensing and talk actionable intelligence.
Moreover, the pod has the flexibility to make the MQ-9 “principally undetectable,” in accordance with Gen. Eric M. Smith, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. “[The pod] can mimic, I’ll watch out right here, it will probably mimic issues which can be despatched to it that it detects, flip it round and ship it again,” acknowledged Smith with out additional elaborating due to safety causes.
The MQ-9’s position within the USMC
As a part of the 2022 Marine Corps Aviation Plan, the Marines plan to make use of MQ-9As “with a set of add-on pods to help the Marine Littoral Regiment because the stand-in power. The plane will present Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Focusing on (ISR-T) in addition to performing extra missions corresponding to Maritime Area Consciousness (MDA), Airborne Community Extension (ANE), Airborne Early Warning (AEW), and Digital Help (ES).”
That is a part of the brand new idea of operations being adopted by the service, enabling expeditionary operations in maritime atmosphere with a lighter however but deadly power, exploiting data superiority and new applied sciences. The MQ-9 is a key a part of this technique, because it operates above Marine and Navy models, offering intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, focusing on, communications, networking, and extra.
Particularly, the Marines are buying the MQ-9A Reaper-ER (Prolonged Vary), which maximizes the endurance of the platform and extends it to greater than 30 hours. Within the huge space of the Pacific, that is a side of major significance, which means the plane can simply cowl the lengthy distances it would must journey over water and supply persistent surveillance.
NAVAIR provides that the “MQ-9 Reaper offers Marines with a long-range ISR functionality in help of maritime area consciousness and expeditionary superior base operations in contested environments.” The USMC introduced that the MQ-9A Reaper reached IOC with the VMU-3 on Aug. 2, 2023.
