Video: Do Marines want to turn the MQ-9 Reaper into a stealth aircraft?

Made by General Atomics, the MQ-9 Reaper is one of the most valuable unmanned aerial systems in military history. In operation since the early 2000s, the MQ-9 Reaper has served loyally and effectively both the U.S. military and the Intelligence Community.

However, technology advancements and the improved capabilities of near-peer adversaries like China and Russia are making the MQ-9 Reaper increasingly more vulnerable on the battlefield of today and tomorrow.

As a response, the U.S. Marine Corps is looking to make its MQ-9 Reaper fleet invisible to enemy eyes and ears.

“Τhe U.S. Marine Corps has a plan to turn the MQ-9 Reaper into a stealth aircraft,” Alex Hollings, Editor-in-Chief of Sandboxx News and the host of AirPower on YouTube, says in his latest video.

“And what’s more, they are planning to do it without changing a single body panel. And that, it would seem, is thanks to the Reaper Defense Electronic Support System,” Hollings adds.

The MQ-9 Reaper provides both kinetic and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to the U.S. military. In many ways, the MQ-9 Reaper has been the eyes and ears of the U.S. military overseas, observing the battlefield and striking when necessary.

But the MQ-9 Reaper has become vulnerable not to just near-peer adversaries like China and Russia but to even insurgent groups like the Houthis in Yemen, who have shot down several drones.

Now, as the Marine Corps keeps investing in its MQ-9 Reaper fleet, it wants to use cutting-edge spoofing technology to make its drones much more survivable in contested airspace.

Watch our video about this development above!