Ukraine wants to buy American MQ-9 Reaper drones, which could change the course of the war

In early April, Ukrainian officials met with representatives of General Atomics, a company that manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles MQ-9 Reaper. This was reported by Forbes.

What is known

Representatives of General Atomics claim that UAVs can arrive in Ukraine "in a matter of days", while pilots will be able to quickly learn to use them. The US government should have agreed to sell such drones to Ukraine, but it is unlikely that negotiations could have taken place if General Atomics had not agreed to the White House.

Currently, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are successfully using Turkish TB-2 Bayraktar drones. It is estimated that the Ukrainian park "Bayraktariv" includes about 20 units. At the same time, the American MQ-9 Reaper surpasses its Turkish counterpart in a number of parameters.

Thus, MQ-9 Reaper has a longer range (1900 km vs. 150 km), higher flight speed (400 km / h vs. 222 km / h) and can transport more payload (1700 kg vs. 150 kg). Engine power is over 910 hp. (in TB-2 Bayraktar - 100 hp). In both cases, the maximum autonomy is 27 hours. Regarding armaments, TB-2 Bayraktar has four suspension points for ammunition weighing up to 37.5 kg. IN The MQ-9 Reaper is six suspension points at once:

• 2 x 680 kg;
• 2 x 230-270 kg;
• 2 x 68-91 kg.

Russian jet fighters and air defenses could be a problem for the MQ-9 Reaper. Prior to that, UAVs were used in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, where the enemy did not have effective air defense. It is also worth noting that the MQ-9 Reaper is much more expensive than the TB-2 Bayraktar - $ 32 million against $ 1-2 million.

Source: Forbes