MQ-9 drone student operators are now trained to land and take off via satellite, dramatically shrinking the footprint of of personnel and equipment needed for Reaper operations. Previously, Reapers have been flown by operators in faraway ground control stations but launched and recovered by Airmen ...
An MQ-9 pilot pulled a wrong lever as the Reaper was taking off in Syracuse, N.Y., causing the remotely piloted aircraft to lose fuel supply and crash in June 2020, according to an Air Force investigation. The MQ-9 was “significantly damaged” at a cost of ...