The primary US UAV line, with a manufacturing value of roughly $30 million USD, is the MQ-9 Reaper, which crashed in the Black Sea after colliding with a Russian aircraft.
The MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was damaged after colliding with a Russian Su-27 fighter plane on March 14 during an encounter over the Black Sea, according to the Pentagon, which forced American troops to instruct it to dive into the water. Russian officials refuted the claim, claiming that the US plane made a sudden move and lost control, leading to the crash on its own.
Since fighting started in Ukraine in February of last year, this is the first direct conflict between Russian and US soldiers. The MQ-9 Reaper “totally disappeared” in the sea, costing the US Air Force at least $ 30 million, according to military experts, but the incident did not lead to more conflicts on land.
The US General Atomics Corporation produces the MQ-9 Reaper, an armed UAV, for the US Air Force. “MQ” denotes that it is a multi-role drone, and “9” denotes the aircraft’s position in the US UAV line.
This is the first search-and-destroy UAV series developed in the US for long-distance, high-altitude reconnaissance. The Reaper line, according to US Air Force Commander Michael Moseley in 2006, signaled the shift in the UAV’s role from primarily reconnaissance and reconnaissance of the adversary to hunting for and destroying targets.
The uav is around 11 meters in length, 20 meters in width, and weighs roughly 2.2 tons hollow. The aircraft has a 950 horsepower turboprop engine that can propel it to a cruise speed of 310 km/h, a range of 1,900 km, and a continuous operating time of 14 to 23 hours while armed.
AGM-114 Hellfire surface-to-surface missiles, GBU-12 laser-guided bombs, or GBU-38 satellite-guided bombs are among the weapons that the MQ-9 aircraft is capable of transporting. Its maximum payload is 1.7 tons. AIM-9X or Stinger surface-to-air missiles can also be mounted on the aircraft, however this capability is currently under development and has not yet been used in actual combat.
The AN/DAS-1 multi-spectral target indicator cluster with color, infrared, and laser irradiation channels, along with the AN/APY-8 Lynx II radar with scanning feature, are all part of the MQ-9’s sensor system. composite aperture to build a three-dimensional representation of the landscape and find a target.
a complete Reaper installation with a ground control tower, four MQ-9 planes, and communication hardware. The pilot, a technician for the sensor, and the mission commanding officer make up the aircraft’s crew.
Almost 300 MQ-9 Reaper aircraft have been delivered in total, the majority of which are in the US Air Force. The MQ-9 is also used in various configurations by the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, France, India, Italy, and Japan.
The US has used this series of UAVs on operations over Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other places across the globe, including the Black Sea. The crash on March 14 was the most recent in a “series of risky acts by Russian pilots when interacting with US and coalition aircraft,” according to the US European Command.
The US Reaper was alleged to have flown close to the border and into a “restricted area” established by Russian officials by the Russian Defense Ministry. Moscow announced a “no-fly zone” in the extensive airspace surrounding the Crimean peninsula.
Nonetheless, foreign aircraft are allowed to fly freely in international airspace, and no government is entitled to create a “limited zone” outside of its own airspace, according to international law.
