On March 9th, 2018, the US Air Force officially retired Predator.
Predator was the one which initiated the era of unmanned air combat and put the fear of
god into the heart of America’s enemies especially the terrorists.
MQ1 Predator is now replaced by a much more capable MQ-9 Reaper which will be the backbone
of US Air Force drone operations going forward.
U.S. Air Force officer has now revealed that an MQ-9 Reaper had secured the first ever
air-to-air kill in a trail almost a year ago.
Col. Julian Cheater, commander of the 432nd Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada said
to Military.com “Something that’s unclassified but not well known, we recently in November (2017)
… launched an air-to-air missile against a maneuvering target that scored a direct hit.
It was an MQ-9 versus a drone with a heat-seeking air-to-air missile, and it was direct hit
… during a test.”
He acknowledged that it's the first-of-its-kind kill.
This comes months after USAF told that it was looking to provide some of the drones
with the capability to take on aerial threats.
In the video, analyzes how American MQ-9 Reaper drone could take out Russian & Chinese fighter jets?
Let's get in the details.
Reaper brings in much more to the table when compared to Predator.
Predator had an endurance of 24 hours, a service ceiling of 25,000 ft. a range of 675 mi or
1,100 km and max speed of 135 mph or 217 km/h. Reaper has an endurance of, 27 hours,
a service ceiling of 50,000 ft, a range of 1,151 mi or 1,852 km and max speed of 300 mph or 482 km/h
The US Air Force also has plans to acquire extended-range (ER) upgrade kits for almost
all of the Reapers.
With the ER kit, Reapers will have an endurance of up to 42 hours without external stores.
The Reaper costs only $4,762 per hour to fly compared to $68,362 per hour for a F-22 fighter
or $169,313 per hour for a B-2 stealth bomber, making it a much more cost-effective option.
Reaper’s main sensor is the nose-mounted MTS-B multi-spectral surveillance and targeting
turret and its fuselage mounted Lynx synthetic aperture radar.
But Reaper’s pylons are very versatile and can be used to carry a variety of tactical
equipment like communications relay hops, electronic warfare pods as well as Wide Area
Aerial Surveillance (WAAS) camera arrays.
The additional sensors are designed to act in conjunction with the drone’s main sensors.
The USAF is also planning to put more potent radars onboard some Reapers.
The idea is to create Ground Moving Targeting Identification (GMTI) sensor nodes that can
be dispersed around the war zone.
GMTI is a radar capability that can be used to trail moving targets on the ground over
time using radar.
Reaper has the ability to carry around 2,500 lbs or 1100 kg of weapons payload through
its external hard points.
The Reaper's hard-points give it the ability to deploy a combination of AGM-114 Hellfire,
GBU-12 Paveway, and GBU-38 JDAM munitions.
AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile is capable of precision strikes.
It can be used with many types of warheads like High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) or tandem
anti-armor Metal augmented charge (MAC) or shaped charge Blast fragmentation.
GBU-12 Paveway is an aerial laser-guided bomb.
It is based on the Mk 82 500-pound general-purpose bomb but has a nose-mounted laser seeker and
fins for guidance.
GPS guidance modes have been added to make the bomb more accurate.
The GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) 500lb bomb is manufactured by Boeing using
the Mk82 bomb body.
JDAM is a guidance kit which has an inertial guidance system coupled to a GPS receiver,
that converts unguided bombs into all-weather “smart” munitions.
JDAM has a published range of up to 15 nautical miles or 28 km.
All of these are Air to Ground Weapons.
Reports that the Air Force has been considering adding air-to-air weaponry to its drones dates
back as far as 2003.
But Predators were never designed to defend itself against enemy jets.
It was generally deployed in areas where threats were relatively low and US Air Force was in control.
But things have changed, especially Russia and China has been more aggressive.
For example, it has been seen that in Syria, Russian jets have often shadowed Reapers.
Keeping in view the changing dynamics of warfare, it is in America’s interest to arm the MQ
9 for air to air combat.
Arming the MQ 9 will not only be a deterrent but they could also be used to carry out tactical
missions in future.
AIM-9X developed by Raytheon is the weapon of choice.
In November 2016, U.S. Navy Captain James Stoneman, in charge of the Air-to-Air Missiles
Program Office at Naval Air Systems Command, released a picture, seen above, of an MQ-9
carrying an AIM-9X in a briefing at the Gulf Coast chapter of the National Defense Industry
Association’s annual Air Armament Symposium.
It has a speed of Mach 2.5 and range of 22 miles or 35 km.
It has Infrared homing for guidance and has a 9.4 kg warhead.
The AIM-9X, especially the Block II variant is a very capable missile.
The Block II adds Lock-on After Launch capability with a data link.
The datalink could be used by the MQ9 to direct the missile or even another aircraft in the
vicinity could direct the missile launched from the Reaper.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Medium Altitude UAS Division revealed on 7
March that it has plans to award the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) a contract for
the development of Reaper Air-to-Air Missile (RAAM) Aviation Simulation.
This is the first step towards the goal to integrate Air-to-Air missile to Reaper.