An MQ-9 Reaper crashed during a combat sortie near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, on Nov. 24, reported Stars and Stripes. The remotely piloted aircraft was assigned to the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing and launched from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, according to a wing release. “The aircraft went down in a remote area away from any civilian population centers and it was a total loss,” 455th AEW spokesman Capt. Bryan Bouchard told Stars and Stripes. “The munitions on board were also destroyed with the aircraft,” he added. The crash was not caused by enemy fire, and the RPA was obliterated to the point that the Air Force did not attempt to secure the crash site, according to the press. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
