MQ-9 Reaper

The use of drones has changed the way the U.S. and its competitors conduct combat operations. Yet despite the broad capabilities touted by America’s varied drone aircraft, some combat operations remain too complex for the pilotless planes. For years, air-to-air engagements were among those operations best left to manned aircraft. But a recent announcement from […]

According to reports from the Department of Defense, a Russian-made T-72 Main Battle Tank was destroyed by a drone strike after it attempted to engage Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the coalition advisors working alongside them in Syria on Saturday, one week after a large scales engagement between pro-Assad and SDF troops forces in the […]

The introduction of drones has led to a number of shifts in the way America’s military conducts both combat and reconnaissance operations.  Drones like the MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper have demonstrated that large-scale drones, comparable in size to many aircraft already employed by the U.S. military, offer a real value to the war […]

US Central Command has acknowledged they lost an MQ-9 Reaper drone in Yemen. “We assess that an MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was shot down in western Yemen on Oct. 1, 2017. This incident is under investigation,” said Maj. Earl Brown, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command. Featured image by US Air Force

According to U.S. Central Command, whose area of operation includes the Middle East, a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down over Yemen on Sunday, confirming the authenticity of a number of videos that have surfaced on the internet in recent days. We assess that an MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was shot down […]

Early last month the MQ-9 Reaper drone made history when it dropped a GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) at the Nevada Test and Training Range near Creech Air Force Base. We had a great opportunity to drop the first live GBU-38s in training,” said Capt. Scott, 26th Weapons Squadron weapons instructor pilot. “The GBU-38 is […]

The US Air Force has announced plans to retire the MQ-1 Predator Drone and transition solely to the MQ-9 Reaper drone by 2018. Flying in combat for over 20 years the MQ-1 Predator Drone has served with distinction but the Air Force felt the need to move to the MQ-9 Reaper for a multitude of reasons […]

This week, Islamic State claimed to have shot down a US UAV near Tal Afar. The video below shows the drone falling from the sky and the wreckage after the crash. SOFREP ran the video by multiple Reaper pilots and they indicated it might be a MQ-1/ Predator instead of a MQ-9/Reaper. The Predator is primarily used […]

Syrian government forces say they have targeted a US air force reconnaissance drone over the war-torn country’s eastern regions.

The level of Royal Air Force involvement over Syria has been released. The data shows 43 airstrikes, carried out by MQ-9’s, Tornado GR.4’s, and Eurofighters, since Operation Shader was extended into Syria in December 2015. If anything it helps paint a better picture of the scale of their involvement. Could they do more? It’s hard […]

In a video released today, a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Reaper drone is seen as it is intercepted over Syria by a Russian Air Force fighter, presumably a Sukhoi  Su-30SM. As we have alluded to before, the airspace over the shores of the eastern Mediterranean Sea is a very busy place: the American-led Operation […]