Yuma’s eyes in the sky: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 4 nearing full operational status

Story by Lance Cpl. Laura Cardoso The U.S. military began experimenting with unmanned aircraft as early as World War I. By World War II, unmanned craft could be controlled by radio signals, usually from another aircraft. Later, unmanned aerial vehicles that could return from a mission and be recovered appeared in the late 1950s. Today, UAV’s perform a wide range of missions and are used by all four branches of the military. Yuma was selected as the site for a portion of the Corps’ newest squadron, Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 4, which control the RQ-7B Shadow UAV. “The Marine Corps needs a VMU because it provides those extra set of eyes for the MAGTF commander to see the battle field and to tell them what’s going on out there,” said Maj. Brian Cole, VMU-4 site and detachment commander and native of Franklin, N.Y. “Our mission is to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for the MAGTF commander to support specific missions.” VMU-4, along with its sister units, are used for day or night reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and battle damage assessment and is equipped with a sensor, a camera and a laser to identify targets and guide weapons. The Shadow […]
Yuma’s eyes in the sky: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 4 nearing full operational status