The United Kingdom has deployed its five new General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft systems to Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 3 July.
The arrival of the UAS at Kandahar Airfield doubles the Reaper force fielded in Afghanistan by the UK Royal Air Force (RAF).
Having been flown by the UK in Afghanistan since 2007, the Reaper is likely to remain in theatre beyond the end of combat operations at the end of 2014 to be used as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform.
According to the MoD, in over 54,000 hours of operations over seven years, the UK’s Reapers have dropped and fired 459 Paveway II precision-guided bombs and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles (equating to one munition expended for every 118 hours of operations). While the MoD did not break down the figure in terms of munition types, the government disclosed in 2012 that six Hellfires had been fired for every Paveway dropped to that date.
The UK Reaper force is operated by 13 Squadron based at RAF Waddington in England, and by 39 Squadron at Creech Air Force Base in the US. Despite being unmanned, the UK’s Reapers are governed by the same rules of engagement as those applied to manned combat aircraft.
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