RAF Reaper Stats

[ORAC]

https://twitter.com/gabriel64869839/status/1686476090426974209?s=61&t=rmEeUn68HhlFHGKbTPQr_A


Over last 10 years, UK Reaper force (now down to sole XIII Sqn as 39 disbanded to make way for 31 standing up next year on PROTECTOR), has flown 155K hours and had 1538 "weapon releases", from 9/10 airframes.

​​​​​​​That's virtually 15500 hours per year, 1500+ hours per airframe.

[CAEBr]

Interesting. That's an awful lot of droning around, but the 'weapons releases' assuming over the same period is only 10 events per drone per year.
Is the usage really that heavily biased to reconnaissance ?

[Lonewolf_50]

Interesting. That's an awful lot of droning around, but the 'weapons releases' assuming over the same period is only 10 events per drone per year.
Is the usage really that heavily biased to reconnaissance ? Who is the UK at war with?

FWIW, my own experiences with Predator, Reaper's predecessor, was that most missions were surveillance, not so many were kinetic. But that's almost 20 years ago.

[Saintsman]

A bit of thread drift, but I watched the move 'Eye in the sky' last night https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eye_in_the_sky , which is about issues surrounding Reaper ops. I found it interesting.

[chevvron]

A bit of thread drift, but I watched the move 'Eye in the sky' last night https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eye_in_the_sky , which is about issues surrounding Reaper ops. I found it interesting.
You sure you weren't ogling Helen Mirren wearing her DPMs?

[teeteringhead]

You sure you weren't ogling Helen Mirren wearing her DPMs? Could this be the 21st Century's answer to Section Officer Harvey?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/310x163/images_4_7555a07917ad1799815fb97344a217a1ba29b36b.jpeg