The following piece first appeared on Warrior Maven, a Military Content Group member website.

Ocean-launched drone flight has been exploding across the US Navy fleet in what could almost be explained as the dawn of a new era in unmanned systems, something which is now expanding its mission scope, migrating to a broader range of warships and multiplying across a multi-national group of allies in the Pacific.

Sailors on a South Korean amphibious warship launched a Gray Eagle STOL (Short-Take-Off-and-Landing) drone last November from a ship deck for an ocean-to-shore demonstration flight. The General Atomics Gray Eagle, in service now for many years, has more recently been configured for vertical take-off-and-landing, something which is now expanding to include the Republic of Korea (ROK).

“Working with our GA-ASI’s in-country partner, Hanwha Aerospace, Gray Eagle STOL launched from the South Korean navy’s amphibious landing ship Dokdo underway at sea off the coast of Pohang, South Korea. The Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) then flew to Pohang Navy Airfield and landed normally,” an essay from General Atomics says.

The GA essay describes the Gray Eagle STOL as the “only medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft of its kind with the ability to operate from large-deck warships such as amphibious ships and aircraft carriers, as well as short and unimproved fields on land.”

Surveillance drones have been operational for decades, as the first Predators date back to KOSOVO in 1999, yet landing an unmanned system from a moving carrier or warship at sea has long been in development with the US Navy.  Sure enough, this capability has been here and is only expanding

“The demo highlighted the versatility of STOL aboard a warship, in the Dokdo, designed not for fixed-wing aircraft but solely for helicopters. Gray Eagle STOL’s flight proves that navies can add significant new capability without costly major modifications to their existing warships,” said South Korean Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Yang Yong-mo, said in the General Atomics essay.