After almost two decades of operations, the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the UK has announced the latest flight with its MQ-9 Reaper drone, and officially marks the end of 18 years in active service.
Reaper was introduced in the British fleet in October 2007, with the original assignment to provide immediate support to British forces in Afghanistan. Since then, it has logged over 173,000 flight hours in combat assignments, mainly in the Middle East, as part of the operation Shader – the UK’s campaign against the Iraq and Syria terror group.
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Heritage
Aircraft Garv Smith, head of RAF’s general staff, highlighted the historical significance of the system:
“Over the past 18 years, the Reeper system for remote-controlled aircraft has been the backbone of Royal Air Force’s operations in the Middle East. Its capacity has been crucial to supporting British and coalition forces, and has significantly improved our ability to fly and fight. After gathering an impressive number of operational flight hours, I am huge in the years of the year.
Reaper participated in important missions in surveillance, reconnaissance and precision attacks, and established itself as one of the UK’s most important modern weapons platforms in the fight against terrorism.
Fremtden: MQ-9B Protector RG1
The British Ministry of Defense has already planned to replace the Ten MQ-9a raft rope with sixteen units of MQ-9b Protector RG1-a more advanced version based on the US MQ-9b Skyguardian.
The first Protector was delivered in October 2023 and is expected to be fully operational by 2025. In February 2025, the drone conducted a decisive phase of floating tests, which marked the start of its full operational integration.
Among the news in the model is Bae Systems’ integrated weapons system, with the capacity to use Popeway IV precision bombs and Brimstone 2 missiles, as well as increased versatility for both military and civilian missions, such as surveillance and emergency preparedness.
Source and pictures: RAF. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
