Posted on 07/23/2008 9:29:57 PM PDT by BloodOrFreedom
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq — It looks more Star Wars than Iraq War, an unmanned aerial killer ready to fly its first combat mission in Iraq. But the MQ-9 Reaper is more than just a stunning sight — it may represent the future of combat aviation.
...
But the Reaper was built with offense in mind. It can carry four Hellfire missiles (the Predator carries only two), and it is equipped with a pair of 500-pound laser-guided bombs.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Tax money to good use.
Love it!
"It's got infrared, so you can actually see somebody smoking a cigarette from about 25,000 feet,"
Infared, hellfire missiles. What could be better than this?
Could use a more spiffy paint job. Some red eyes on the upper dome and a jagged shark mouth below.
More cowbell.
Thanks for the thread. Good to have you back.
Can I order one in light green with a racing stripe?
Definitely...or, in keeping with the name...
...one of these
Haha...sorry, no custom orders
It needs to be painted on the side in arabic lettering something like “This device was manufactured with pig’s blood” in case it gets shot down in islamic zones.
Azrael...
Hell, It needs to drop whole pigs!
That paint job is reserved for the Mustangs and Warthogs.
Cousin Gort... 
if that you calling me?
Wikipedia...MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance. The MQ-9 is a larger and more capable aircraft than the earlier MQ-1 Predator. It can use MQ-1's ground systems. The MQ-9 has a 950-shaft-horsepower turboprop engine, far more powerful than the Predator's 119 hp (89 kW) piston engine. The increase in power allows the Reaper to carry 15 times more ordnance and cruise at three times the speed of the MQ-1.
Probably a little more than just on the drawing board.
They can put tax money to better use by letting enlisted fly these things.
AWESOME!
A STREAMLINED KILLER DRONE! TAKE THAT JIHADIS!
Wonder what Obono would say.
cancel the program and give it all to the Chinese.
I want that sticker!
Gort!!
i dont remember what we were supposed to tell him.
something about barata niktu was it?
I vote for painting them to look like an attacking wild boar hog and lubricating the rounds with lard!
However there have always been exceptions.
I would expect eventually fiction will become fact.
MOVE ZIG!
FOR GREAT JUSTICE!
“Klaatu, Barada Nikto!
Pretty cool stuff. But useful only where you have total air control. Flying 2x the speed of the Predator, the Reaper would be a easy takeout air-to-air.
Right. But it's a step in that direction. I'm sure at some point in the near future, we'll see that kind of significant development in air combat
General CharacteristicsNote that the payload is close to the bomb weight that an F-16 can carry
Primary Function: Unmanned hunter/killer weapon system
Contractor: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.
Power Plant: Honeywell TPE331-10GD turboprop engine
Thrust: 900 shaft horsepower maximum
Wingspan: 66 feet (20.1 meters)
Length: 36 feet (11 meters)
Height: 12.5 feet (3.8 meters)
Weight: 4,900 pounds (2,223 kilograms) empty
Maximum takeoff weight: 10,500 pounds (4,760 kilograms)
Fuel Capacity: 4,000 pounds (602 gallons)
Payload: 3,750 pounds (1,701 kilograms)
Speed: cruise speed around 230 miles per hour, (200 knots)
Range: 3,682 miles (3,200 nautical miles)
Ceiling: up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters)
Armament: Combination of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, GBU-12 Paveway II and GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
Crew (remote): Two (pilot and sensor operator)
Unit Cost: $53.5 million (includes four aircraft with sensors) (fiscal 2006 dollars)
A TWICE TOLD TAILE By Dr. Raymond L. Puffer Air Force Flight Center historian As the fateful year 2001 nears its end, American forces and Northern Alliance irregulars in Afghanistan are closing in on the last strongholds of the terrorists in Afghanistan.
Some of the press releases in October noted that RQ-1 Predator drones had successfully fired Hellfire anti-tank missiles against Taliban targets, the first time that a U.S. unmanned reconnaissance aircraft had ever delivered ordnance in combat. The successful debut of this new form of warfare was preceded by test launches of the Hellfire C carried out near Nellis Air Force Base in February.
This news interested the general public, yet drew quiet smiles from a few old-timers around the country. Like so many other aerospace milestones, the Flight Test Center had laid the groundwork for the feat a long time before.
Way back in August 1970, Egypt began to locate a massive number of antiaircraft artillery and strategic air missile (SAM) launchers along the west bank of the Suez Canal. The effect of this was to deny airspace over the canal to the Israelis, who could only respond by prohibitively costly attacks on the weapon sites. The United States and NATO became interested in this new tactical problem, and the concept of "suppression of enemy air defenses" — SEAD — was born.
One possible solution might be to modify existing target drones to an attack capability. Out of this came Have Lemon, a program to demonstrate new approaches to standoff weapons delivery. Teledyne Ryan, in the meantime, had been working for some time to provide its jet-powered BQM-34 Firebee drone with a weapons delivery capability. A joint Air Force-Ryan team began work on the concept demonstration effort early in 1971, and made rapid progress. The Air Force bailed four mothballed aerial target drones back to Ryan, which were then fitted with components, building-block style, from six other models. The new vehicle was also equipped with larger wings and bomb shackles for an AGM-65 Maverick missile, and was redesignated BGM-34A (the "G" standing for "surface attack").
The BGM-34A was a remotely piloted vehicle (RPV), normally launched from a C-130 and flown by a human controller located in a remote control van. A TV camera in the nose, fitted with a zoom lens, gave the pilot the perspective of actually being aboard the drone. The pilot could shift his view to the Maverick once its electro-optical seeker had acquired the target, launch the missile at the optimum time, and "ride" it through its final phase.
The 6514th Test Squadron at the Flight Test Center was assigned to carry out the flight work. The squadron conducted five captive-carry flights to resolve interface problems between the airborne subsystems, and then 10 free flights. Two of the test birds were lost in accidents before the system was deemed ready for the first live fire test. On Dec. 14, 1971, barely nine months after the go-ahead, a BGM-34A fired its missile squarely into an obsolete radar van on the Precision Impact Range Area (PIRA). This marked the first time that an American-powered, guided air-to-surface missile had been launched from an RPV, and the result was a direct hit.
As impressive as the strike might have been, however, it was only one shot. Confirmation of a new accomplishment is always vital, and that came about a week later, on Dec. 21, 1971. On that day, 30 years ago, the BGM-34A demonstrated its reliability by firing another Maverick into the simulated SAM radar van, virtually through the same hole. The launch vehicle’s TV camera continued to function after missile separation, allowing the pilot to track the trajectory to impact and then assess the damage.
The Have Lemon team repeated its successes two months later with another SEAD weapon. In February 1972 it scored two consecutive hits with the Stubby Hobo, an electro-optical glide bomb guided by an integral autopilot. Teledyne Ryan went on to develop the BGM-34B, but neither vehicle was used in Vietnam. An even more versatile successor, the BGM-34C, appeared a few years later and was tested by the AFFTC in 1977.
Ryan’s air combat vehicles faded into history, but they certainly had proved the concept to be valid. It remained for a future war to demonstrate their worth in combat.
In addition to the reconnaissance role, Teledyne Ryan also experimented with lethal versions of the BQM-34 drone. In 1971 and 1972, drones were armed with Maverick missiles or electro-optically guided bombs (Stubby Hobo) in an attempt to develop an unmanned defense suppression aircraft to be flown in conjunction with manned strike aircraft (fig. 2-3). The thinking behind this project was that an unmanned aircraft ". . . doesn't give a damn for its own safety. Thus every unmanned bird is a potential Medal of Honor winner!"14 Figure 2-3. BQM-34 UAV with Stubby Hobo
Here is my money making idea. Arm these with a 20 mm cannon.
Allow people to go online and for $100 fee, you get 5 minutes to fire the 20 mm cannon at vehicles, ground targets, taliban etc...
I am still working out the specifics.
I hope you know I meant the P-51 Mustang.
I think enlisted do fly these - from control panels here in the states.
Of course, I do and it was rarely used on Mustangs.
Some sharks with freaking laser beams would be pretty sweet too.
Didn’t you audition for the remake, Bender?
Specifics hell. I'm thinking we have roughly 30 MILLION qualified pilots for these monsters. Put 50 hard hardcore gamers, 1 Lieutentant and couple of Gunnery Sergeants into the back the control truck, a bunch of cheetos and Mountain Dew, 20 TrimPredators, some wild weasel support and you'd have a force that could beat the crap out of an armored division of Revolutionary Guards in Iran.
We could have national game championships with the top X scorers getting advanced rank / trainin placement with Army / Air Force positions. They'd eat it up!!
Just wait until these babies are carrying HARM missiles, Durandels, cluster bomb packages and other assorted loads of goodness.
And the whole thing could be sponsored by Doritos, Mountain Dew and Stridex pads!
nice graphics!
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