The USMC plans to outfit its entire fleet of RQ-7 Shadow drones with laser designators, allowing them to guide missiles fired from manned platforms toward targets, and the service expects an imminent urgent universal needs statement from Afghanistan asking for an assessment on firing weapons directly from the unmanned platform, a Marine official said last week.
In the hopes of fighting the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the number-one threat to troops in combat, the Marines have begun installing a laser designator and laser range finder on the first of 13 Shadow unmanned aerial systems.
Each system consists of four aircraft and two ground control systems.
The payload will allow it to take over a missile fired from an AV-8B Harrier, F/A-18 Hornet or AH-1 Cobra at standoff ranges and guide it toward IED targets, Lt. Col. Brad Beach, UAS coordinator in the Marine aviation weapons requirements branch, told Inside the Navy in a May 26 interview.