Rise of the Reaper
By John A. Tirpak
In less than a year, the Air Force has brought into combat service its newest and most lethal unmanned aerial vehicle, the MQ-9 REAPER. A special squadron is simultaneously developing tactics, training flight crews, and operating the UAV in battle.
This is taking place now, even though operational testing has barely begun and a full production decision is still a year off.
The Reaper drew first blood on Oct. 27, 2007, when it fired a Hellfire at insurgents attacking US troops in Afghanistan. Eleven days later, a Reaper dropped its first pair of laser-guided bombs, silencing Afghan insurgents firing at U.S. forces.
The Reaper’s success is important if, as many believe, it is the first of a new breed of large unmanned combat aircraft.
It was in late February 2006 that Gen. Ron Keys, then commander of Air Combat Command, ordered acceleration of Reaper to operational service. Much has happened since then, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Greene, commander of the 42nd Attack Squadron based at Creech AFB, Nev., about 45 miles NW of Nellis
Keys’ was responding to the demands of commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan for more “persistent” intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft . . as well as additional strike . . and close air support assets.
Reaper in flight over Nellis [ USAF photo by MSgt. Valenca ]
Greene said he and one other officer “started out in a cubicle at Nellis” with a “blank sheet of paper,” assigned the task of inventing the first true unmanned combat aircraft squadron.
By March 2006, he had ( 1 ) a budget, ( 2 ) a building at Creech, ( 3 ) one aircraft, and orders to get Reaper into combat by the Fall, 2006.
On Sept. 27, 2007, the first Reaper to fly a combat mission was launched from a base in Afghanistan.
The Reaper evolved from the MQ-1 Predator, butit is a very different machine, with a different mission.
With a 66-foot wingspan, the Reaper is roughly the size of the A-10 attack airplane, and can carry 3,000 pounds of weapons—more than 10 times the capacity of the Predator. It can fly at up to 288 miles per hour, allowing it to transit from an operating base to a patrol area almost twice as fast as the Predator.
The typical on-station time is 15 hours. It can cruise at 50,000 feet “clean”—that is, without weapons—but typically flies at about 30,000 feet, fully loaded.
The Predator is described as a “killer scout”—with a limited ability to shoot at targets of opportunity.
However, the Reaper has been defined as a “hunter killer,” meaning that it is dedicated to strike and yet still has sizeable ISR capabilities, including electro-optical, infrared, synthetic aperture radar, and low-light television.
Air Combat Command compares the Reaper less to a Predator than to an F-16 fighter, which is meant to attack ground targets but which can use targeting pods to collect and transmit full-motion video to air operations centers and troops on the ground.
The typical Reaper weapons load includes two laser guided bombs and four Hellfire laser guided missiles, but it can carry up to four LGBs. It eventually will carry both 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions and 250-pound Small Diameter Bombs. These GPS guided weapons will allow Reaper to precisely attack targets through bad weather.
The Reaper crew pairs an officer pilot with one enlisted sensor operator. They sit side by side in a trailer that can be set up almost anywhere, but that for now resides at Creech, next to a bank of satellite dish antennas.
The pilot sits on the left of the “cockpit,” facing a main screen and several smaller screens showing him pictures through the aircraft’s nose camera, its sensor turret, and displays of the status of various systems. He has joysticks that simulate throttle and stick, but there’s a keyboard in front of him.
Some of the screens are for instant-messaging type chat with various levels of command and control, such as the air operations center for US Central Command Air Forces. He can also communicate by voice or text with troops on the ground, half a world away.
The sensor operator’s station is very much like the pilot’s, but is more geared toward operating the cameras, infrared system, radar, and other sensors onboard.
Except for Greene, none of the Reaper pilots have prior experience with the Predator. They are experienced in F-15E, F-16, A-10, B-1, and B-52 aircraft.
The more senior sensor operators come from the Predator force. “The majority of them are fresh out of tech school, ... imagery analysts by trade,” Greene noted. “But that’s going to change. Our next group will have experienced enlisted aircrew members.”
After a training course of only a few months, graduates go directly to combat missions and help train new crews in how to fly and fight with the Reaper. In most systems, it usually takes many hours to upgrade to instructor, but Reaper crews do so not long after emerging from the “schoolhouse” themselves.
The trailer housing the flight crew is called a ground control station. It is connected by fiber-optic cable to a satellite uplink in Europe, which then communicates with the aircraft via satellite. That way, all radio communications can be “line-of-sight” in nature.
An MQ-9 Reaper undergoes inspection in Afghanistan. (USAF photo)
The Pilots Are Real Pilots.
Despite the speed of transmission, there’s still a two-second delay between a pilot’s input and feedback on his screen. During most of a mission, the delay doesn’t matter. However, for takeoff and landing, a local pilot actually takes over control of the aircraft, Greene reported.
Taking off and landing the Reaper is a challenge, he said, because there’s only one view—through the nose camera—and no peripheral vision, stick pressure, sound, or “seat of the pants” sensations. The aircraft must be flown very precisely to avoid overcontrol. It is especially tough to land in a crosswind. And there’s “ almost no flare ” in landing.
Greene said that a more sophisticated “cockpit,” with more \" cues \" is in the works, but has yet to be matured.
The Reaper crew is included in the air tasking order issued by CENTAF. The crew briefs the mission just as it would with a manned aircraft. After the takeoff crew gets the Reaper airborne and calibrates its lasers and other instruments, the Creech crew takes over and flies it to a patrol area.
A typical mission features close air support for ground troops, but for an extended time. And it goves them the added bonus of seeing over hills and around corners.
“It can stay over the target area ... for hours,” Greene said, “ whereas an F-16 or Strike Eagle will have to go back to the tanker ” and leave the ground troops uncovered.
The Reaper pilot can send ground forces an aerial image of the area in which they’re operating if they have the right equipment, and if fire from the Reaper is needed, “it’s easy to get a ‘talk on'\" to the target, Greene said.
“You’re not physically in the air, but it’s still a challenging scenario. You’re still doing stick and throttle and you’re still dealing with weather, air traffic control, traffic pattern ops, and sophisticated tactics.”
Besides X-CAS, the Reapers also perform a [ sort of ] forward air control-airborne mission.
“ It’s ... like a FAC-A, but you’re not giving clearance for guys to drop weapons. ... You’re more like a traffic cop, working a kill box,” and routing fighters to the areas where they are needed.\"
Creech offers an excellent impression of a forward location.
It’s a bare-bones facility surrounded by desert, with little in the way of housing and only one dining hall, open a few hours a day. It has two ground control stations.
In years past, when it was Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, Creech was used by Nellis pilots for landing practice or as a marshaling site in large Red Flag or Gunsmoke events.
In Afghanistan, an aircrew member inspects a Reaper weapons load. (USAF photos)
Members talk in terms of “caps,” which is the collection of aircraft, support gear, and persons needed to keep station for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
A Reaper “combat air patrol” requires four aircraft, one ground control station, and 10 crews, Greene said. The 42nd will be full up in 2010, when it will have six caps’ worth of capability.
Many coalition uniforms can be seen. The Royal Air Force is acquiring and operating Reapers—they perform ISR functions only—and is setting up its own facility at Creech. British operators also serve as instructors for USAF flight crews.
In Afghanistan, USAF and RAF crews share Reaper infrastructure. Plans called for a January activation of RAF 39 Squadron at Creech.
A Reaper takes off for a mission over Afghanistan. (USAF photos)
The Air Force admits to having roughly 10 Reapers. The “program of record” calls for buying 60 more Reapers in the next few years. However, the USAF added eight in the 2007 for use by Air Force Special Ops and will add eight more in 2008 for a total buy of 76. Those numbers do not include additional sales to Britain, friendly foreign operators, or other US agencies.
Air Force said the aircraft so far have been “ very clean. ... almost no write-ups.” —Things that we actually asked them to do, like add some chafing protection on some wires, things not part of the original aircraft design are done for us,” the official said. The declaration of IOC also takes into account sortie rates, available aircraft, and a matured maintenance capability.
It is in the area of spare parts that the Reaper faces some of its biggest challenges. Whenever a system is rushed from the factory to battle, it usually takes a while for the spare parts to catch up.
General Atomics continues to “ build the spare parts and [ wartime readiness ] ' kits ' for us,” and occasional shortages due to fielding it so swiftly . . it’s kind of ‘ the cost of doing business.'
“ ( Usually) it’s not that the aircraft itself that's broken,” he said. Because the parts are still so new, no track record of parts performance [ over time ] has been established. With more data, parts will be allowed to stay on the airplane for longer and longer periods, until there’s confidence in how long they’ll last.
Air Force Bulletin Detail [ abridged ]
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