Reaper in Action

An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on enemy combatants near Kandahar, Afghanistan, on July 9, Air Forces Central said in a release yesterday. This attack was one of the 71 close air support missions flown by coalition aircraft in Afghanistan on that day. Others included F-15Es hitting enemy combatants near Qalat with 500-pound joint direct attack munitions and attacking enemy forces with 2,000-pound JDAMs in the vicinity of Shkin. There were 51 CAS missions in Iraq on July 9, AFCENT said, including an F-16 taking out an improvised explosive device near Khan Bani Sad with a 500-pound JDAM. All of these missions were successful, according to on-scene joint terminal attack controllers.