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GA-ASI, Marine Corps Conclude MQ-9A Reaper UAS First Flight in Middle East; David Alexander Quoted

ga-asi-marine-corps-conclude-mq-9a-reaper-uas-first-flight-in-middle-east-david-alexander-quoted

GA-ASI, Marine Corps Conclude MQ-9A Reaper UAS First Flight in Middle East; David Alexander Quoted - top government contractors - best government contracting event

General Atomics’ aeronautical systems business and the U.S. Marine Corps have completed the first operational flight of the company’s MQ-9A Reaper unmanned aerial system in the Middle East.

GA-ASI said Thursday it conducted the flight with the Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1, or VMU-1, and is currently leasing the MQ-9A UAS to the Marine Corps to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations in Afghanistan.

VMU-1 serves as the ‘test bed’ operators for the unmanned vehicle and will work to inform the acquisition and deployment of Reaper for the Marine Air-Ground Task Force under the UAS Group 5 capability.

The Marine Corps intends to transition MQ-9A ownership and operation from commercial to government over the next year.

David Alexander, president of GA-ASI, said the company is also looking forward to helping expand the deployment of medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS for maritime littoral missions under its partnership with the service branch.

MQ-9A has achieved over 7K hours of flight operations since 2018.

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