Air Force Nears Inaugural Combat Tour of Reaper Armed Unmanned Aircraft

• Published in: Defense Daily Vol. 235; no. 55
• Format: Newsletter Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Potomac Access Intelligence, LLC 18.09.2007; Access Intelligence LLC
• Subjects: Aircraft industry; Bartlett, Charlie; Drone aircraft; Military aspects; Sirak, Michael; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Wright, Glenn; United States
• ISSN: 0889-0404; 1930-644X

The combat tour will be significant because the Reaper is the Air Force's first operational UAS to be designed from its inception as a strike platform. The aircraft's onboard cameras and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and its complement of bombs and missiles, combined with its ability to loiter in the air for longer than manned strike platforms, will provide commanders in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) that includes Afghanistan and Iraq with a potent new capability to find and attack fleeting objects, said [Charlie Bartlett] and Lt. Col. Glenn Wright, the task force's MQ-9 subject matter expert. "There is a greater demand for the capabilities that the Reaper has," Bartlett said. "And largely what the warfighter is asking for...at all echelons of command is more full-motion video. They want to have the persistent ability to stare at a target, to watch that target and then, based on the dynamics on the battlefield, either to direct other forces to engage that target or eliminate it itself if it is a high-value target that has been positively identified." "It brings greater lethality," said Bartlett of the MQ-9. "It is well suited for the environment in Afghanistan, for example, which is less densely populated. [But] wherever the combatant commander chooses to employ it, it can be additive capability to bringing more force protection as well as offensive capability to the ground force commanders."