On March 14, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) ditched an MQ-9 Reaper within the Black Sea after a confrontation with two Russian Su-27 jets over worldwide waters west of Crimea. The U.S. mentioned a Russian fighter jet dumped gasoline on the drone and within the second occasion, flew very shut and struck its propeller. It later launched a 42-second video that captured the incident.
Featuring unmatched operational flexibility, the MQ-9A ‘Reaper’ has an endurance of over 27 hours, speeds of 240 KTAS (knots true airspeed) and may function as much as an altitude of fifty,000 ft, in keeping with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the producer of the High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) remotely piloted plane (RPA) .
“Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on, and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” Gen James B. Hecker, Commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, mentioned. “This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional.” In flip, Russia mentioned the Su-27s had been scrambled to establish the plane as its transponders had been switched off whereas asserting that Russian fighters “did not use airborne weapons, did not come into contact with the unmanned aerial vehicle and returned safely to the home airfield.”
India’s hyperlinks
The curious coincidence is that India has a join with each the navy platforms. While the Su-30MKI, the spine of the Indian Air Force fighter energy, is a by-product of the Su-27, the Indian Navy is at present working two MQ-9As on lease. A much bigger proposal for procuring 30 armed MQ-9As, popularly referred to as Predator-B, has been delayed.
The Reaper is a major technological leap from the unique RQ-1/MQ-1Predator that heralded the arrival of lengthy endurance armed drones on the finish of the 20 th century. Armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, it turned a logo of the U.S. warfare on terror, having being extensively deployed in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan within the early 2000s. The RQ-1 Predator, which was first flown by the USAF in 1995, was retired in 2018 and changed by the Reaper.
According to the USAF, the Reaper is employed primarily as an intelligence-collection asset and secondarily towards dynamic execution targets. “Given its significant loiter time, wide-range sensors, multi-mode communications suite, and precision weapons, it provides a unique capability to perform strike, coordination, and reconnaissance against high-value, fleeting, and time-sensitive targets.”
It is remotely operated by a two-person workforce — a pilot and an aircrew member to function the sensors and weapons. MQ-9As are operated by the U.S., U.Ok., France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and on order by Belgium. Japan not too long ago inducted the MQ-9B Sea Guardian, the maritime configuration.
Indian Navy leased the 2 MQ-9As in 2020, which has since been prolonged. In November 2022, General Atomics introduced that the RPAs accomplished 10,000 flight hours throughout a interval of two years, with the maiden flight going down on November 21, 2020. “Our MQ-9As have helped the Indian Navy to cover over 14 million square miles of operating area,” Linden Blue, CEO of GA, had mentioned.
On the deal for 30 armed MQ-9Bs, Navy Chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar mentioned final December that the case was in progress and at a stage “where we are discussing if numbers need to be rationalised or kept as it is.”
At Aero India in Bengaluru final month, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and General Atomics introduced that the turbo-propeller engines which energy the MQ-9B will likely be supported by HAL’s engine division for the Indian market. The firms need to formulate a complete engine Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) programme for upcoming HALE RPA initiatives, a joint assertion had mentioned.
Source: www.thehindu.com
