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Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

militarywatchmagazine.com

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Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#5

Post by rpdillon »

drcongo wrote: post #2

That website doesn't seem to have that story on it.

It does. You have to click again after landing. Twenty years ago, I was a U.S. Navy officer, and spent some time in the Middle East, went through the Strait of Hormuz a dozen times or so, and we knew then that there was a very good reason not to go to war with Iran.

Fast forward to today, and we've elected reality TV personalities to lead our country and military and they're making decisions that are akin to what a newbie playing chess would blunder in their first opening moves of a game.

Because the conflict is not actually sanctioned by Congress, we are not at wartime replacement levels for munitions and aircraft, so these losses are not something that we can recover from quickly. The reapers that were destroyed are not even produced anymore. It's like amateur hour.

Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#7

Post by wongarsu »

FTA: 'the firm reported in early June: “Between parts in stock for new builds, and company-owned Reapers with some number of flight hours on them, there are less than 10 total ‘new’ MQ-9As available to any customers anywhere in the world.” The destruction of eight of these new aircraft thus likely accounts for the United States’ entire reserve of its most critical unmanned aircraft type'

Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#8

Post by quantummagic »

rpdillon wrote: post #5
drcongo wrote: post #2

That website doesn't seem to have that story on it.

It does. You have to click again after landing. Twenty years ago, I was a U.S. Navy officer, and spent some time in the Middle East, went through the Strait of Hormuz a dozen times or so, and we knew then that there was a very good reason not to go to war with Iran. Fast forward to today, and we've elected reality TV personalities to lead our country and military and they're making decisions that are akin to what a n…

I'm no fan of the current administration, but this particular loss seems to be a failing of military strategy and leadership, not civilian ineptitude. It's not like the Whitehouse would have picked this staging area or directly controlled other logistics involved.

Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#9

Post by scanny »

It would be interesting to get a breakdown of what goes into something like the MQ-9, given they were introduced back in 2007 I wonder how difficult it would be to spin up a replacement using more COTS tech to lower the price and lead time for new builds.

I presume a lot goes into the satellite comms system, dealing with jamming, and certifying anything that flies.

In my complete ignorance I would presume a prop-driven unmanned aircraft built for loitering and dropping farily common ordnance with a quality optical package should be something that a bunch of defence companies could roll out quickly for the pentagon?

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