U.S. Marines Want to Be Armed With Suicide Drones To Engage Threats On Land And At Sea

 

Warzone/The Drive: Marines Pick Loitering Munition To Arm Light Vehicles And Drone Boats 

So-called "suicide drones" will give Marine units a new option for finding threats and engaging them precisely on land and at sea. 

The U.S. Marine Corps plans to arm variants of its 8x8 LAV-25 wheeled armored vehicle, as well as 4x4 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and Long-Range Unmanned Surface Vehicle drone boats with Israeli-designed loitering munitions, sometimes referred to as "suicide drones." All of these platforms will deploy these munitions, a variant of the UVision Hero-120, from a common Multi-Canister Launcher against various ground and maritime targets.

UVision confirmed that a version of its Hero-120, as well as its Multi-Canister Launcher, had been selected as the winning entry for the Marine Corps' Organic Precision Fires-Mounted (OPF-M) program on June 21, 2021. Israel-headquartered UVision, which also has its own U.S. subsidiary, is working together with Maryland-based Mistral, Inc. to deliver the Marine-specific Hero-120s, which the latter company has referred to as Loitering Strike Munitions. The broader OFP program, which dates back to at least 2018, also includes plans to acquire smaller, man-portable loitering munitions for dismounted use.  

Read more ....  

WNU Editor: Suicide drones are the future, and they are going to be an integral part for all military units. This push by the US Marines to arm themselves with these type of drones is another sign on how much these drones have evolved over the years.