What is the US Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper Drone at Center of Black Sea Incident?

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 because of its own extreme maneuvers and no physical interaction ever happened.

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.

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.

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.

A further “extended range” upgrade to the Reaper allows it to loiter for between 34 and 40 hours carrying a full load.

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a federal law enforcement agency, also has two special Guardian variants 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.

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.

Because it was intended to be essentially a remotely piloted strike aircraft, the Reaper has substantial offensive capabilities.

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.

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.

Aside from those users, sales of US drones on the international market has largely been blocked by laws designed to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missile technology.

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.

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 in conjunction with French forces.

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.

The US has a fleet of at least 300 Reaper drones of all varieties, with other nations having no more than a handful each.

The drone’s cost has steadily increased since it was introduced. The first Reapers in 2008 cost $14 million each, but by 2020, their price had ballooned to $32 million each, making them more expensive than an AH-64E Apache attack helicopter and even more expensive than some older varieties of F-16 Falcon fighter jets.

*The Taliban: a group under UN sanctions over terrorist activities.