As the military looks for new ways to use cheap drones, the Marine Corps is testing whether helicopters can serve as mobile control centers during missions at sea.

During a recent exercise off the coast of California, Marines launched and controlled small first-person view drones from UH-1Y Venom and AH-1Z Viper helicopters while supporting a Marine special operations hit, board, search and seizure drill. The Corps explored whether the unmanned aircraft could be used to scan ships more closely before troops boarded to help mitigate surprises and reduce danger, the service said in a news release.

The service said the experiment demonstrated that helicopter formations could “scan, target and surveil from a safe distance” during maritime operations. Boarding and seizing ships can be among the military’s riskiest missions, meaning that spending more time guarding the ship can greatly reduce the likelihood of encountering tactical problems.

The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing said in its statement that by using the FPV drones “as a remote extension of the helicopter’s own sensors,” the Marines were able to make “an inherently dangerous mission more controlled by reducing the unknowns.”

The Marines used small Neros Archer drones with first-person view, the primary drone used by the Corps. Each costs a few thousand dollars, and the Army expects to buy many more, with the Army seeking up to a million Neros Archer drones over the next two years.

The exercise also explored whether helicopters could serve as motherships for smaller drones, an idea that is already emerging on modern battlefields.

In Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian forces have increasingly paired larger drones with smaller FPV aircraft and interceptor drones, using the larger combat platforms to transport offensive and defensive drones closer to the battlefield before releasing them. This approach extends the range of drones by miles, giving them greater range without putting operators closer to danger.

The recent exercise follows an earlier Marine Corps exercise in May, in which troops also practiced handing over control of ground units to helicopters and launching from helicopters, early testing of the “airborne mothership” and flying command post concepts for the Corps.