About MQ-9 Reaper

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (also called Predator B or Guardian) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), capable of remote controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for use by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the CIA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Royal Air Force, and the Italian Air Force. The MQ-9 and other UAVs are referred to as Remotely Piloted Vehicles/Aircraft (RPV/RPA) by the U.S. Air Force to indicate their human ground controllers. The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance.

The MQ-9 is a larger and more capable aircraft than the earlier MQ-1 Predator (other than loiter time), and it can be controlled by the same ground systems used to control MQ-1s. The Reaper has a 950-shaft-horsepower (712 kW) turboprop engine, far more powerful than the Predator's 115 hp (86 kW) piston engine. The increase in power allows the Reaper to carry 15 times more ordnance and cruise at three times the speed of the MQ-1. Although the MQ-9 can fly pre-programmed routes autonomously, the aircraft is always monitored or controlled by aircrew in the Ground Control Station (GCS) and weapons employment is always commanded by the flight crew.

In 2008 the New York Air National Guard 174th Fighter Wing began the transition from F-16 piloted fighters to MQ-9 Reapers, becoming the first fighter squadron conversion to an all-UCAV attack squadron. As of March 2011, the U.S. Air Force was training more pilots for advanced unmanned aerial vehicles than for any other single weapons system.

Then U.S. Air Force (USAF) Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley said, "We've moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles before Operation Iraqi Freedom, to a true hunter-killer role with the Reaper."

More about MQ-9 Reaper

Developed by the United States, and operated by the U.S. Air Force, U.K., Italy, Turkey, the UK and the US Border Patrol, the MQ-9 Reaper is medium-to-high altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle. It is a larger descendant of the MQ-1 Predator, but can be taken apart, put into shipping containers, and carried by a C-130 Hercules or larger aircraft.

The drone aircraft can be used both as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform as well as a "hunter-killer" for armed reconnaissance. The Royal Air Force tends to emphasize the former and the USAF the latter, but the same aircraft does both.

MQ-9 on groundSince October 2009, in the Afghanistan War (2001-) aircraft are launched and recovered from U.S. Air Force facilities in Afghanistan, but operationally controlled from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada in the continental United States. They are acknowledged to be flying in Afghanistan, and it is an open secret that they operate in Pakistan and possibly other nearby states, perhaps under Central Intelligence Agency operational control.