U.S. Marines' Resupply Drones Achieve Initial Operational Capability

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps declared Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for the TRV-150C Tactical Resupply Unmanned Aircraft System (TRUAS) on October 27, 2023, at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

This announcement comes as the first six production systems of the TRV-150C were delivered to the Marines Third Littoral Logistics Battalion (LLB-3) in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, just last week.

The attainment of IOC signifies that LLB-3 is now adequately staffed, trained, and prepared to deploy with the cutting-edge TRV-150C system. Gregg Skinner, the Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems program manager (PMA-263), emphasized the importance of this achievement, stating, "This achievement means the fleet is ready and fully capable of deploying and using this game-changing system, which will enable Marines to perform forward deployed contested logistics missions." Skinner's Unmanned Logistics Systems-Air (ULS-A) team oversees the TRUAS program.

Before the declaration of IOC, support personnel from the Air Test and Evaluations Squadron Two Four (UX-24) from Naval Air Warfare Center Webster Outlying Field in Maryland, along with an instructor from the Training and Logistics Support Activity Pacific, arrived at MCB Hawaii. Their mission was to conduct the final operator qualification with LLB-3, ensuring that they were ready to operate the TRV-150C effectively. The training involved reviewing the differences between prototype and production systems and successfully completing 36 training flights.

The production contract for the TRV-150C was awarded by PMA-263 in April 2023, following a rapid prototyping initiative that brought the system from concept to deployment in under four years.

TRUAS is a land-based, autonomous Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) that offers organic logistics support to Marine squads through automated launch, waypoint navigation, automated landing, and payload drop. The system significantly enhances battlefield logistics capability, allowing for the distribution of critical supplies at Expeditionary Advanced Bases, where the risk to manned aircraft would otherwise hinder resupply operations.