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The HK (hunter-killer) from Terminator is finally here!
Low risk environment?VIDEO  The HK (hunter-killer) from Terminator is finally here! Thank goodness its still human controlled at the moment. The MQ-9 Reaper, when compared with the 1995-vintage Predator, represents a major upgrade. At five tons, the Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator. Its size - 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan - is comparable to the profile of the awesome A-10 Thunderbolt II. It can fly twice as fast and twice as high as the Predator. Most significantly, it carries many more weapons. While the Predator is armed with two Hellfire missiles, the Reaper can carry 14 of the air-to-ground weapons - or four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs (holy cow!). It is able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada. The US Air Force is building a 400,000 sq ft expansion of the concrete ramp area now used for Predator drones at Balad, the biggest air base in Iraq, 50 miles north of Baghdad. General Atomics of San Diego has built at least nine of the MQ-9s thus far, at a cost of $69 million per set of four aircraft, with ground equipment. The Air Force's 432nd Wing, a UAV unit formally established on May 1, is to eventually fly 60 Reapers and 160 Predators. The Reaper is expected to be flown as the Predator is - by a two-member team of pilot and sensor operator who work at computer control stations and video screens that display what the UAV sees.Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2007-10-17 |
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