{"id":7674,"date":"2023-03-15T04:27:01","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T09:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=7674"},"modified":"2023-03-15T04:27:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T09:27:04","slug":"the-us-air-force-mq-9-reaper-uav-crashed-due-to-its-own-extreme-maneuvers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=7674","title":{"rendered":"The US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper UAV crashed due to its own extreme maneuvers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ssia,As the US launched its Global War on Terror in the early 21st century, it needed a new high-tech weapon to minimize the risk of US casualties that could sap domestic morale for the operations. Enter: the MQ-9 Reaper, a hunter-killer drone flown from afar and sporting numerous weapons to rain death from above.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western media reports on Tuesday claimed a Russian Su-27 interceptor aircraft over the Black Sea collided with a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), sending the drone into a tailspin and a crash. However, Moscow has since detailed that the drone crashed<\/strong><\/u><\/strong><\/a> because of its own extreme maneuvers and no physical interaction ever happened.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also called the Predator-B, the Reaper is a major improvement of the earlier MQ-1 Predator drone, performing virtually all of its roles better. Both are built by General Atomics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Reaper flew in February 2001, the same month a Predator was first fitted with a Hellfire anti-tank missile. The new UAV was envisioned primarily as a hunter-killer and its design reflects that: it has a more powerful engine, bigger wings, faster speed, higher flying altitude, and a much greater lifting capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its engine went from 115 horsepower to 900 horsepower; its speed went from 135 miles per hour to 276 miles per hour; its wingspan went from 55 feet to 66 feet; its length went from 27 feet to 36 feet; and its lifting capacity increased from just 450 pounds and two hardpoints to 3,850 pounds with seven hardpoints. Its service ceiling also doubled, from 25,000 feet to 50,000 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, its endurance declined from 24 hours of loitering time by the Predator to just 14 hours for the Reaper if it\u2019s fully loaded with munitions. Without weapons, a Reaper can loiter for 42 hours.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A further \u201cextended range\u201d upgrade to the Reaper allows it to loiter for between 34 and 40 hours carrying a full load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a federal law enforcement agency, also has two special Guardian variants<\/u><\/a> made to meet American air standards; however, most military drones cannot be flown in US airspace, save for thin strips of land along the US borders with Mexico and Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A later modification of the MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, was also used as a hunter-killer, although it was a modification of the Predator airframe, not a completely new vehicle like the Reaper, so its capabilities remained inferior to the Reaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because it was intended to be essentially a remotely piloted strike aircraft, the Reaper has substantial offensive capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the Reaper sports an AN\/APY-8 Lynx radar, a Ku-Band high resolution, all-weather synthetic aperture radar and ground motion target indicator (GMTI) system. It has a maximum resolution of 4 inches and a maximum instrumented range of 87 kilometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was initially made for the US Air Force, but has since been sold in small numbers to the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, India, Japan, and France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from those users, sales of US drones on the international market has largely been blocked by laws<\/u><\/a> designed to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missile technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MQ-9 is most notorious for its air missions over Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan, which began in 2007, launching airstrikes against the Taliban*, Al-Qaeda**, and other militia groups fighting the US and its allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reapers have been used extensively by US Africa Command (AFRICOM) for missions ranging from anti-piracy patrols in the Seychelles to airstrikes against Al-Shabaab in Somalia and operations against Daesh-affiliated* militias in Mali, Niger, and Libya<\/u><\/a> in conjunction with French forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Reapers have been shot down across all theaters by surface-based anti-air systems ranging from Soviet-era SA-6 KUB systems to modern Russian-made Pantsir vehicles. At least one Reaper was shot down by a USAF F-15 Eagle after connection was lost with the UAV and it veered toward the Afghan-Tajik border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Many Reapers Does the US Have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US has a fleet of\u00a0at least 300 Reaper drones\u00a0of all varieties, with other nations having no more than a handful each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sputniknews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ssia,As the US launched its Global War on Terror in the early 21st century, it needed a new high-tech weapon to minimize the risk of US casualties that could sap domestic morale for the operations. Enter: the MQ-9 Reaper, a hunter-killer drone flown from afar and sporting numerous weapons to rain death from above. Western […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1517,3521],"class_list":["post-7674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-drone","tag-ru-crash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7676,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7674\/revisions\/7676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}