U.S. Marine Corps RQ-21A Blackjack UAV

A new unmanned aircraft with a 16-foot wingspan that has taken to the skies over Marine Corps Base Hawaii performs a neat trick: It “lands” by catching a wingtip on a vertical guy wire, eliminating the need for a runway.

That’s important as the Marine Corps — and the rest of the service branches — focus on dispersing forces across the Indo-Pacific to sometimes austere locations to make them less vulnerable to Chinese and Russian missiles.

The RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aerial system was launched for the first time from Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay on Monday.

Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3 — which used to fly the bigger RQ-7B Shadow — is in the process of receiving four Blackjack systems with five aircraft each, the Corps said.

Courtesy U.S. Marine Corps