Raven will soon be a common name to every Marine who has completed The Basic School (TBS) officer course.
Thirteen TBS instructors finished a two-week course May 22, where they learned how to operate, maintain and integrate the RQ-11B Raven small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) into their upcoming basic school curriculum. The course, held at Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia, was led by a team from the Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (PMA-263) Training and Logistics Support Activity (TALSA).
Maj. Justin Betz, TBS air officer, anticipates integrating Raven UAS instruction into the basic officer courses beginning later this year. The current TBS curriculum does not include small UAS training or instruction.
“By teaching and training this at the first school new Marine officers attend, they will take this knowledge and develop new tactics, techniques and procedures earlier on in their careers, helping the Group 1 UAS program grow within the Marine Corps,” Betz said.
The Raven, RQ-12A Wasp and RQ-20A Puma make up PMA-263’s Group 1 portfolio, which are categorized as unmanned aircraft weighing less than 20 pounds. They can be hand-launched and provide intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and target acquisition to the warfighter on the ground.
Maj. Peter Fukushima, Warfighting Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) section head who will be overseeing the use of Group 1 training at TBS, said classroom instruction will be incorporated into the aviation courses that are already provided and then phase in field exercises using the cadre of 13 instructors to operate the systems. The curriculum will train Marine officers to utilize the capabilities that Group 1 UAS bring to the task force and incorporate that into their mission planning and considerations.
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