Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, U.S. Marine Corps deputy commandant for aviation, has said the service branch’s future Group 5 unmanned aircraft system may carry the same weapons and sensors as the F-35 fighter jet, DoD Buzz reported Thursday.
Davis told the Unmanned Systems Defense conference in Virginia that the Marine air-ground task force unmanned expeditionary platform or MUX will collaborate with the F-35B Lightning II aircraft and support manned-unmanned teaming, Hope Hodge Seck wrote.
“I think the Group 5 [unmanned aircraft system] for the Marine Corps will have [AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile] on there, will have AIM-9X [Sidewinder missile], will have all the weapons that an F-35 will carry, maybe even the sensors the F-35 will carry,” Davis said, according to the report.
Davis added he wants a technology demonstration flight of MUX by 2018 and early operational capability for the UAS by 2024, the report stated.
