MQ-9 Reaper delivered ahead of schedule

  • Published
  • By Laura McGowan
  • Aeronautical Systems Center Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  The first MQ-9 Reaper touched down at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., March 13. Its arrival, which occurred nearly one year earlier than projected, signals another effort by Aeronautical Systems Center to meet the warfighter's needs.

ASC is the primary acquisition agent responsible for developing, testing, producing, delivering and sustaining the MQ-9 Reaper from cradle to grave. The Reaper is a larger and more capable version of the MQ-1 Predator.

According to Lt. Col. Peter Eide, the MQ-9 program manager who is assigned to the 658th Aeronautical Systems Squadron, the achievement truly was a team effort.

"Program managers orchestrated the effort, with functional support, testers and logisticians playing huge roles," said Colonel Eide.

"Delivery of this first MQ-9 aircraft is for the purposes of training their combat aircrews," the colonel said. "Last year around this time, Gen. Ronald Keys, commander of Air Combat Command, directed his folks to figure out how we could get the MQ-9 out faster than originally planned. So, we worked together with ACC and came up with a way we could field the system a year early."

Added Maj. Steven Peak, ACC's chief of MQ-9 Requirements, "The Reaper is the next leap in Unmanned Aerial Systems, and this delivery will ensure aircrews are trained to support our troops around the world."

The MQ-9 Reaper is a medium-to-high altitude, long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft system, and its primary mission is that of a persistent hunter-killer against enemy targets, supporting joint force commander objectives. It is designed to go after time-sensitive targets with persistence and precision, destroying or disabling those targets.

Its secondary mission is to act as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance asset, providing real-time data to commanders and intelligence specialists.

The aircrew consists of a pilot and a sensor operator who operate from a remote satellite location. While ASC personnel here manage the program, there are other ASC personnel with execution responsibility who are co-located with the contractors at Detachment 3 in San Diego.