Many in the public would the hearing the name of the “Predator” drone alone would invoke fear, it does as it should. However, the Predator drone has a new brother, who is larger, more deadly, and more advanced- the MQ-9 Reaper drone. The Reaper drone is by far the most ambitious plan the United States Air Force has to modernize, and think toward the future, the United States air fleet. During the early years of combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, after 2002, the Predator drone proved highly useful but it was never truly designed as an attack drone. In 2007 General Atomics, the maker of the Predator drone, unveiled the first true hunter-killer drone the MQ-9 Reaper. Unlike other drones the Reaper cannot stay in the air for 24 continuous hours like its predecessor surveillance drones. Instead, a fully loaded Reaper drone can stay in the air for 14 continuous hours. Either way this air time for a pure focused attack vehicle outstrips the continuous airtime of both attack planes and helicopters.

By 2030, the United States Air Force hopes to own over 300 Reaper drones. The hunter-killer of the future may remind some readers of the ominous drones from the Terminator movies. It isn’t surprising; the Reaper drone serves the same effect as those hunter killers. Traditionally a column of troops moving through controlled territory would be guarded from above by attack helicopters, even higher up possible attack airplanes, providing both forward intelligence and the capacity to strike enemy targets. The future will see these attack helicopters and planes replaced in large part by Reaper drones. While it may seem fanciful, a Reaper drone, or better yet a group of Reaper drones can be armed just as well as an attack helicopter or attack fighter. The Reaper drone can carry up to four laser guided hellfire missiles, two of  the GBU-Paveway II (that is two 500 pound bombs), JDAM unguided bombs, the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile and in development the ability to carry the air-to-air AIM-92 sidewinder missile. The Reaper drone is a true flying missile fortress. If testing goes well the Reaper drone will be the first drone, in history, to have true air-to-air combat abilities.

Take a moment to let that set in, a drone that is fully capable of providing air-to-ground and air-to-air support.

For all of human history, conflict; any form of conflict; has pitted two human individuals against each other. Both of those individuals have the opportunity to lose their life, from taking fire from the opposing side to simply a malfunction in equipment in the modern day. The Reaper drone revolutionizes this concept. Once the Reaper drone has air-to-air capabilities the United States will have expendable equipment with little risk to US personnel. No other country on the globe, past or present, has been able to make this claim. The United States will be able to project power and defend its allies without needing to put pilot’s lives at risk. For the first time in history a war fighter can turn to their family and say “Don’t worry I’m coming home” and mean it.