The picture shows the MQ9 drone
MQ9 UAV was developed by the American General Atomic Energy Company in the 90s of the 20th century, is a large "reconnaissance and combat integration" unmanned combat aircraft at high altitude during long endurance, its cost is as high as 32 million, MQ9 UAV can not only perform attack, intelligence collection, but also fly autonomously, its flight altitude also exceeds that of civil aircraft, there are "death drone", "predator" and other titles, but on March 14, 2023 was shot down by Su-27 oil, reduced to the Russian army's trophies.
MQ9 UAV is the world's first armed UAV specially designed for long-term high-altitude reconnaissance missions, is one of the important forces of the future air force operations of the United States, its maximum take-off weight of 4760 kg, the maximum speed of about 430 kilometers per hour, in 2007 officially entered into service with the US Air Force, participated in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and other battlefields of combat operations, and later also been adopted or leased by the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries and organizations. In 2011, the MQ9 Reaper drone reportedly used its keen reconnaissance capabilities near the Libyan capital Tripoli to detect and destroy an SA8 surface-to-air missile vehicle belonging to Gaddafi's government forces, providing air superiority for coalition aircraft to carry out no-fly zone missions. And in 2012, the Reaper drone fired two Hellfire missiles in the southern province of Abyan and assassinated the senior leader of al-Qaeda's branch in the Arabian Peninsula and two militants, so what is the performance of the US military's MQ9 drone? I have the following three points on this.
The picture shows the MQ9 drone
MQ9 UAV is known as "Reaper UAV", it first flew in 2003, first put into production in 2006, in 2007 the United States used MQ9 to form the world's first formed UAV combat force, this UAV can perform tasks at high altitudes, it has high-altitude long-term cruise performance, up to 15240 meters, patrol time can also be up to 42 hours, not only that, MQ9 UAV is also equipped with high-definition cameras, infrared sensors, laser rangefinders, Advanced technologies such as radar make it possible to detect and track enemy operations over a wide range.
The picture shows the MQ9 drone
The second is that it is equipped with a variety of sensors and weapon systems, MQ9 UAV can be equipped with a variety of precision strike weapon systems, such as AGM114 Hellfire missiles, GBU38 and other precision guided missiles, these can be used at a long distance against enemy targets, it can be configured and used according to different mission requirements, greatly improving the applicability and flexibility of MQ9, and it can also be used as a communication relay station, forwarding communication signals from ground or other stations to other locations. Used to expand the scope and effect of communication, the UAV also adopts autonomous flight technology, which can realize the functions of autonomous take-off and landing, route planning and obstacle avoidance, and can also be remotely controlled by satellite and ground control stations, greatly increasing its combat capability and detection range.
Finally, the most important equipment of MQ9 UAV is actually its satellite communication system, which uses a butterfly broadband antenna for satellite communication, mainly using its sensors to obtain intelligence, once through this UAV satellite to Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, which is also part of the US battlefield data link, once on the battlefield in Ukraine, many time-sensitive target instruction data is also conveyed to the Ukrainian army through this UAV satellite.
The picture shows the MQ9 drone
On the whole, MQ9 UAV can be said to be "the whole body is a treasure", it is a powerful multi-purpose UAV, can perform a variety of tasks, has a wide range of application prospects, is widely used in military and civilian fields, and when flying, most of the anti-aircraft missiles and artillery, simply can not pose a threat to it, in the high altitude encounter with fighters, it is not passively beaten, but can launch air-to-air missiles for self-defense, has played a huge role in many wars of the US military, so there is a "Grim Reaper UAV", " Reaper" and other titles, can be described as thunderous.