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| MQ-9 Reaper drone |
Militarymedia.net - The U.S. Air Force is working to increase its fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones as its mission shifts from anti-extremist operations to confronting almost equal enemies such as Russia and China. Through the MQ-9 Program Office of the Air Force Lifecycle Management Center, upgrades will be installed in new and existing Reapers.
Since first flying in February 2001, the general atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) MQ-9 Reaper's capabilities in many of its variants have been improved, allowing it to take on more ambitious missions. Currently, it is operated by the United States and six other countries, and has seen the action in many theaters around the world, but is in danger of soon becoming irrelevant.
To date, the Reaper has focused on intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and attack missions that the Air Force calls counter-violent extremist organization (C-VEO) combat operations. In translation, it means it is used against rebels, terrorists, and pirates in areas where the U.S. and its allies enjoy aerial supremacy.
However, the geopolitical world is changing, and such C-VEO operations are becoming less important as imminent threats become the center of attention, especially in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States European Command (EUCOM), where reapers fly missions from Romania. This means the Reaper will have to deal with more sophisticated air defense systems in areas still contested by air space.
To meet this new challenge, the Air Force wants to order Reapers to be upgraded to MQ-9 Multi-Domain Operation (M2DO) aircraft, with a contract heading to GA-ASI this month. Meanwhile, the Air Force will retrofit the current fleet. These improvements include an anti-jamming system, which is already installed, as well as an increase in electro-optical/infra-red sensors that allow more types of weapons to be carried, as well as other unreleased upgrades.
"Working with Air Combat Command and other stakeholders, the MQ-9 company will add new capabilities to the platform to help ensure the MQ-9 is able to support this mission in the threat environment we envision," said Lieutenant Colonel Nick Jordan, Materiel Leader for MQ-9 Production and Retrofit. "Users have directed us to add technology to the platform, which indicates that the MQ-9 can offer more capabilities than just C-VEO operations over the next ten to fifteen years. This can remain relevant to this added and improved technology."
