General Atomics MQ9 Reaper

Il_Signor_Regio · May 4, 2024, 12:59am

[Would you like to see this in-game if the developer will decide to add more drones?]

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Description: The General Atomics MQ9 Reaper is an American drone made by the company General Atomics. It made its first flight in 2001 and was later adopted by a lot of countries all over the world. In 2008, the Italian Air Force ordered 4 units for reconfiguration roles. This order was later raised to 6 units in 2009, and in 2010, the first units were delivered. The first conflict in which they were involved was the Lybian civil war in 2011 to support NATO operations. In 2012, they were deployed in Kosovo to provide recon data to the Italian ground troops. In 2015, the USA approved the weapons integration for the Italian Reapers, but the Italian parliament wasn’t able to understand how important those assets were and preferred to listen to the pacifists’ wishes and didn’t order the weapons for the air force. In 2019, a drone was shot down by a Libian Pantsir by mistake; indeed, the Lybians thought that it was a Turkish drone. In 2021, the Italian Air Force contracted General Atomics to start a mid-life upgrade for its MQ9 from 2022 to 2023. After seven years, in 2022, the Italian Air Force was finally able to buy the weapons for its reapers. The various weapons acquired were the GBU12, GBU49, AGM144K II, and GBU38. The first upgraded Italian reaper made its first flight on November 9, 2023. The program is currently pretty secret since no pictures were ever published, and it’s not known when the other units will return to Italy. In the future, MQ9 Block 5 will be used alongside the EUROMALE for reconfiguration and anty tank roles.

Why it should be in game: If the Developers will ever decide to add more drones to the game, the MQ9 will be a good option for replace the MQ1 at hightier tiers. The drone could go to a lot of nations including Italy.

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