France trials Reaper UAV in C-UAS role
A French Air and Space Force MQ09A Reaper UAV armed with Hellfire missiles for C-UAS trials in early April. (French Air and Space Force)
France is trialling its General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9A Reaper Block 5 Extended Range (ER) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) role, the Ministry of the Armed Forces disclosed on 8 April.
At the beginning of April, at the Île du Levant firing range (Var, southeastern France), the French Air and Space Force (AAE), in coordination with the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA), successfully conducted experimental firings of the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire missile from a Reaper UAV against unmanned aerial targets.
The Ministry said that it had taken three months after the Hellfire had entered service on the Reaper to expand its use beyond ground targets. “This success provides a new operational capability to counter the drone threat. Integrating this counter-drone warfare capability on the Reaper also enables the Air and Space Force to deploy a complementary, graduated, and adaptable range of responses to the diversity of threats,” the Ministry added.
France has 12 Reaper Block 5 ER UAVs, the first of which were delivered in 2020, including six Reaper Block 1s that were upgraded to the same standard. The Block 5 ER has a 30 hour endurance (compared with 24 hours for the Block 1), and a range of 2,592 km (compared with 1,850 km).
While the earlier Block 1 UAVs had been unarmed and used exclusively for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, the Block 5 ER UAVs are armed with GBU-12/49 Paveway precision-guided bombs and Hellfire missiles, and are equipped with a Foreign Military Sales (FMS)-acquired pod for electronic intelligence gathering.
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