Why the US military does not want to transfer the MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone to the APU
The APU wants to receive medium-altitude General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle ("Gray Eagle") American-made UAVs to strengthen their strike and reconnaissance capabilities. "Newspaper.Ru" figured out why the Pentagon is still refusing Kiev.
"The Pentagon has so far refrained from supplying the MQ-1C Gray Eagle to Ukraine. The provision of these weapons was insisted on in Congress and the White House, but was opposed by the Office of Export Security of the US Department of Defense. This issue is being discussed, but supplies are blocked so far," CNN reported, citing a senior military source.
The American MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones, as well as the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 UAVs currently used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, are multifunctional systems, that is, they have not only reconnaissance capabilities, but also have onboard weapons systems.
This device can be armed with missiles with semi-active laser or active radar guidance of the AGM-114 Hellfire type ("Hellfire"), or four high-precision planning bombs with a GBU-44/B Viper Strike laser guidance head ("Viper Bite") to strike ground targets, or eight anti-aircraft guided missiles AIM-92 Stinger ("Sting") for parrying aerial threats.
"The appetites of the Ukrainian military were actually even greater.
Naturally, in case of receiving a positive political decision on this issue," he told the newspaper.En" Denis Fedutinov, editor-in-chief of the Unmanned Aviation magazine.
The actively started process related to possible deliveries of UAVs has stalled since a certain point in time. Initially, the pre-approved bar for the dimension of unmanned systems was lowered from the desired more than 4.5-ton Reaper to 1600-kilogram Gray Eagle. And then the plans were postponed indefinitely.
"Judging by the latest media reports, the issue is not closed, but it is worth noting the fact that the United States is traditionally extremely scrupulous about the supply of its high-tech reconnaissance and strike UAVs. Among the main reasons - the United States is trying to minimize the risks of leakage of critical technologies to countries that oppose the dominant role of the United States in the modern world," said Fedutinov.
The expert stressed that these drones are good in point operations against a deliberately weaker opponent in technical terms, as shown by the experience of their use in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and some other countries. At the same time, the effectiveness of such UAVs in Ukraine in the conditions of countering modern air defense and electronic warfare can be extremely low.
According to Fedutinov, this UAV with its reflective surface is not a difficult target for anti-aircraft missile systems. If the MQ-1C Gray Eagle is in the affected area of the Buk-M3/3 or S-300/400 type air defense systems, it will be destroyed with a high degree of probability.
"Domestic specialists, in the event of a Gray Eagle defeat in the airspace of Ukraine, would receive interesting materials both for studying and subsequent use in the creation of domestic samples of unmanned vehicles, and for developing techniques and methods of combating American UAVs. Of greatest interest could be control systems, communications, as well as a multi-channel optoelectronic intelligence and surveillance system. These technologies of American drones will go to Russia through Ukraine," Denis Fedutinov believes.
As for the Gray Eagle itself, previously these devices were not supplied to foreign customers at all, being used exclusively by the Ground Forces of the US Armed Forces.
"Another reason for the supply restriction is the fact that over the years of operation of Gray Eagle systems, this machine has demonstrated too high a level of accidents. Despite regular improvements," the expert concluded.
Mikhail Khodarenok
