General Popov explained why the MQ-9 Reaper drone will not be able to help the APU
Kiev is negotiating the purchase of heavy attack drones MQ-9 Reaper "Reaper" in the United States. "Newspaper.Ru" found out what an American drone is and how it can affect the course of a special military operation in Ukraine.
As reported by the American edition of Forbes, the Ukrainian delegation held talks in Washington with the company General Atomics, which produces MQ-9 attack drones, and received assurances about the possibility of their imminent delivery. Such a deal must be approved by the US authorities.
"Reaper has a grim reputation, with a hint of the expression Grim Reaper - "grim reaper", that is, death, he is also called a "terrorist hunter". Missiles from the MQ-9 drone destroyed a number of Al-Qaeda leaders (the organization is banned in Russia), as well as in January 2020, an Iranian general from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Qasem Suleimani," told the newspaper.Ru" aviation expert, retired Air Force Colonel Nikolai Pavlenko.
There were losses of the MQ-9 Reaper themselves - 12 drones have been lost since 2011, while only 4 devices are guaranteed to be shot down in this list, in another case two "Reapers" working in pairs in the skies of Syria collided in the air. The remaining losses are due to accidents during takeoff and landing due to operator errors.
"Remote control of this drone in size comparable to the Thunderbolt attack aircraft seems to be a very difficult task. In the USA, it takes more than a year for military personnel who already have similar experience to prepare for the management of the MQ-9 Reaper," Pavlenko said.
Pavlenko believes that in the case of the MQ-9 Reaper, due to the complexity of its application and the high cost of the aircraft itself, it is impossible to train the crew using the express method. At the same time, the expert noted that the functions of the operator can be performed by American specialists.
"The appearance of this "Reaper" in the sky of Ukraine will be a "harvest" for Russian air defense systems," he told the newspaper.En" military expert, reserve Major General Vladimir Popov. - This drone has a number of disadvantages, among which its large dimensions with a twenty-meter wingspan and low speed, on the radar screen it will be a big fat dot, the coordinates of which will immediately go to the rocket launcher. Even a ceiling height of 15 kilometers will not save, especially since the effectiveness of this drone is about 6 kilometers. Of course, you can't get it from the Igla type MANPADS, but the Buk-M2 or Tor-M2 type air defense systems will remove this "reaper" with the first launch."
The expert noted that the current experience of using the MQ-9 Reaper is mostly reduced to reconnaissance functions and strike use in the absence of serious air defense systems.
"In Afghanistan, they acted with almost impunity for this very reason. We flew into Libya - minus one, there the fighters of a private military company turned out to have the right weapons, flew into Syria - the same result. On the territory of Ukraine, the vaunted Turkish Bayraktars, which were considered "kings of the sky" in Karabakh, where there was simply nothing to detect and destroy them, are now being successfully shot down. The "Reaper", if he does, of course, will have the same fate. In general, it seems to me that the experience of combat operations during a special military operation will significantly revise the use of attack drones. They were over-praised," says Major General Popov.
In the USA itself, the "Reaper" is also criticized in the expert community. So, the Defense News publication, in October 2021, noted that "it is too slow and will not be able to work in a confrontation with a well-technically equipped enemy" and, with references to its sources in the Pentagon, reported that the US army is allegedly looking for a replacement for this drone.
In December 2021, retired Marine Corps General Kenneth Mackenzie called the "Reaper" on Fox News "unviable in the fight against high-class opponents."
"Such arguments about the passing era of the "Reaper" did not stop Kiev in an effort to get an expensive "toy" in the form of the MQ-9 Reaper with which they expect to "radically change" the course of military operations in Ukraine. The logic is similar to the acquisition of Turkish "Bayraktars" - widely promoted in the Karabakh war, but failed to help Ukraine. The MQ-9 is superior to Bayraaktar, can carry 4 AGM 114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles or up to 38 GPS-guided bombs.
- Major General Popov summed up.
Victor Sokirko