First unmanned aircraft squadron to fight Iraq insurgency

The first unmanned attack squadron in aviation history will shortly be deployed in Iraq, where it will drop 500-pound smart bombs and Hellfire missiles on the enemy, while the ‘pilots’ flying the planes will be far way from danger, sitting in the comfort of a US Air Force base in Nevada.

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper UAV can be controlled through satellite link, thousands of miles away from the actual operational area. The planes are launched locally but are controlled by a pilot and a sensor operator sitting at computer consoles in a ground station, which can be operated by wireless signals in situated nearby, or by satellite signals to pilots and sensor operators in Nevada's Creech Air Force Base or in a similar facility thousands of miles away.

Bigger, faster, deadlier
The MQ-9 Reaper is the Air Force's first hunter-killer unmanned aircraft; big brother to the deadly Predator, which has flown over 300,000 flight hours, mostly in combat. Predators have flown an average of 8,200 hours per month over the past six months, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, maintaining the highest operational readiness rates in the US military aircraft inventory. The MQ-9 Reaper is twice as fast as the Predator — it has a 900 HP turbo-prop engine, compared to the Predator’s 119 HP power plant — and has far more firepower; 14 Hellfire missiles as opposed to two.

At five tonnes gross weight, the Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator — 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan — it compares to the Air Force's workhorse A-10 attack plane. It can fly twice as fast and twice as high; at 50,000 ft, compared to the Predator’s 25,000 ft. It will employ sensors to find, fix, track and target critical time-sensitive targets. Multiple aircraft will be operated from a single ground station, multiplying its overall combat effectiveness.

General Atomics has built nine MQ-9s at a cost of $69 million per set of four aircraft, including essential ground equipment. The Air Force now has a formal UAV unit, the 432nd Wing, established on 1 May 2007. It will fly 60 Reapers and 160 Predators when built up to full strength.