Sunday, June 2, 2024
Sunday, June 2, 2024
The British government has announced the deployment of Royal Air Force MQ-9 Reapers to Iraq in support of US. and coalition efforts to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant extremist group.
According to an Oct. 16 statement from the British Ministry of Defence, the deployment marks the first operational use of the country's Reapers outside of Afghanistan. The aircraft will support surveillance and strike missions in the Iraq region, but probably not in Syria since the House of Commons has so far only approved British involvement in Iraq.
The statement did not say where the MQ-9s would be based. Right now the U.K. is supporting airstrikes in Iraq from RAF Base Akrotiri in Cyprus, although Reapers are controlled from mobile ground control stations and are generally launched from geographically separate bases closer to the area of operation.
British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said in the Oct. 16 MOD statement:
The surveillance capability of Reaper will see it provide vital situational awareness, making it an invaluable asset to the Iraqi government and the coalition allies in helping counter the threat from ISIL and supporting our vital interests in the area. If strike operations are required then Reaper has the ability to complement the sorties RAF Tornados have already completed.
The statement said the Reaper is the U.K.'s only armed remotely piloted aircraft and the rules of engagement are the same for both manned and unmanned aircraft. The British army uses Israeli Hermes 450s for surveillance missions but those remotely piloted aircraft are not weaponized.
Based on the Pentagon's latest Selected Acquisition Report for the MQ-9 program, published in April, the U.K. has a total of 11 Reapers. The British military spent $514 million procuring those aircraft and seven mobile ground control stations from 2007 to 2011.
As of July, there were 10 UK Reapers operating from Afghanistan's Kandahar Airfield, according to a statement from that month. The most recent statement did specify how many of those Reapers in Afghanistan were being re-tasked to support operations against ISIL in Iraq.