The US Marine Corps senior officer revealed that a new type of electronic warfare pod is being equipped for the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle, transforming it into a “black hole” with stealth capabilities, allowing it to “disappear from enemy radars”.
According to a report by Defense News on July 8, this new pod, known as T-SOAR (Tactical SOF Open Architecture Reconnaissance), can “mimic” signals to help the drone evade enemy sensors.
General Eric Smith, the Marine Corps Commandant, stated at an event at the Brookings Institution last week that “the pod can mimic, it can mimic what it’s detecting, what’s being sent to it, and sending it back to the source.”
“So it becomes a ‘hole’. A ‘black hole’. It becomes almost undetectable,” he added.
The United States conducted its first test of the pod developed by General Atomics and L3Harris Technologies in 2021. The 634-pound (287 kg) pod is capable of “remotely detecting, identifying and locating radar and communication signals of interest,” according to General Atomics.
“SOAR enables the MQ-9 or other aircraft to conduct area surveillance outside the threat zone, detect threats before the enemy identifies the aircraft, and relay actionable intelligence,” the company stated.
It is currently unclear how many of the 20 MQ-9A Block 5 drones being acquired by the Marine Corps will be equipped with these pods, which are crucial for transforming this hunter-killer platform into a sensor platform.
The Marine Corps plans to primarily deploy the extended-range Reaper drones in the Indo-Pacific region, targeting Chinese communications and data relays, electronic warfare, maritime awareness, and ISR missions.
The performance of these drones far exceeds that of smaller traditional UAVs like the RQ-7 Shadow and RQ-21 Blackjack, with plans to deploy 18 units by 2025.
“You have to be able to sense from a distance. You have to understand what’s going on. You have to be able to share that data across the entire battlespace with joint forces, and that’s why our MQ-9 is so important,” Smith added.
The Marine Corps began operating MQ-9 Reaper drones in 2018.
According to the US Air Force, the Reaper drones are primarily used for intelligence gathering, followed by “dynamic execution target engagement.”
Peter Wilson, a senior defense policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, told Business Insider that the drone itself is “highly useful” and “deserving of respect”.
“It’s been one of the most successful combat drones we’ve used in our long counterinsurgency operations in Iraq, against ISIS, and in Afghanistan,” he said.