[National Defense] The Marine Corps moved forward with an initiative to field quadcopters to all squads last month, according to the commanding general of the service’s combat development command and deputy commandant for combat development and integration. The service decided to purchase over 800 systems at the end of last year as a result of information gathered from experiments such as Sea Dragon 2025, Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh said at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International event at National Harbor, Maryland.
"We never had anything like that even at the company level. It was much higher at the battalion level. We’re getting one for every single squad in the entire Marine Corps," he said, noting the service began delivering the systems at the end of last month. The quadcopters are expected to give Marines additional situational awareness when operating on the ground.
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"We want to unburden them," he said. "An F-35 pilot ... has all these sensors on his aircraft ... and he can declutter and displace and bring in what information he wants. That’s the kind of information we’ve got to get down to lower levels."