UK looks to arm expanded Reaper force

UK Royal Air Force (RAF) chiefs want to arm their soon-to-be-delivered General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for strike operations against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan later this year.

The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, told Jane?s that the RAF has also increased its requirement for the upgraded version of the Predator UAV from two to three air vehicles. When urgent operational requirement (UOR) approval for the purchase of the Reapers was approved by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 2006 it was not envisaged that the UAVs would be armed.

"Predator B [Reaper] is coming later this year to give us a persistent striking capability, which is key to attacking the type of targets we need to attack," said ACM Torpy. "It is cleared for [the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 laser guided] Hellfire. We will use the same weapons as the Americans at first because that is the quickest way to get capability," he added.

"We will not need convincing of what [the Reapers] will deliver for us. We are buying three, up from two. Our aspiration is that the [Predator force] will get bigger, 12 for a start," said ACM Torpy. 203 of 428 words