Air Force Expands Mission for Reaper Attack Drones, Adds New Weapons

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By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

The Air Force is advancing plans to retire its Predator drone by transitioning pilots to the larger Reaper drone – and widening the mission scope of Reapers to include more weapons integration, attack options and ISR possibilities.

The retirement and transition from the Predator to expanded Reaper use will finish by the end of this year, Air Force officials said.

“The MQ-1 Predator paved the way through 24 years of service and adaptation leading to expanded capabilities of the MQ-9 Reaper. The mission set doesn’t change. The capabilities to fulfill those multi-role missions are expanded by the MQ-9 Reaper,” Maj. Ken Scholz, Air Force Spokesman, told Warrior Maven.

The Air Force is adding new weapons to the Reaper, in part by leveraging an emerging “universal weapons interface.” This would allow the Reaper to more quickly integrate new weapons technology as it emerges and efficiently swap or replace bombs on the drone without much difficulty, Air Force weapons developers explain.

This is something brought to fruition by common standards and IP protocol engineered with adjustable software and hardware configurations. This enables faster integration or a more seamless addition of new weapons on the Reaper platform.

The Reaper currently fires the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, a 500-pound laser-guided weapon called the GBU-12 Paveway II, and Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs which are free-fall bombs engineered with a GPS and Inertial Navigation Systems guidance kit.