US Marine Corps to field thousands of FPVs in 2026

The US Marine Corps has been testing Neros Archer since at least 2024. (Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory)

Thousands of Neros Archer unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will fly with the US Marine Corps (USMC) in 2026, said an officer on 2 December.

Four armed drone teams, one based in Okinawa, Japan, have trained on the Archers, said Lieutenant Colonel John Dick, commander of 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) Battalion. Although the US government shutdown that ended in November slowed down deliveries, about 50–100 UAVs will be delivered to 3rd LAR before January 2026, he told Janes on the sidelines of the General Dynamics Land Systems' Maneuver Warfighter Industry Symposium in Detroit, Michigan.

The UAV can carry a 2 kg payload over 20 km, according to a Neros press release. The USMC has three payloads for the Archers – anti-personnel, anti-materiel, and explosively formed penetrator (EFP) for anti-armour, he said.

The first-person view (FPV) vehicle is still not a programme of record, and this one-time procurement is for 3,200 Archers, Cathleen Close, spokesperson for Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, told Janes in September.

The live fires have taken place between 2 and 8 km, he said. Kraken Kinetics makes a training round that the USMC uses to simulate live fires for training, which operators have flown out to 20 km strikes, he said.

There is still some difficulty scheduling training ranges because of the Federal Aviation Administration restrictions on the frequencies that UAVs operate on, said Lt Col Dick.

Common training issues are a loss of link due to a bad connection and the UAVs breaking down, said Lt Col Dick. About 10–25% of all UAVs are lost in training, some due to extreme heat.