Sunday, October 11, 2015

British Protector UCAV Will be a Reaper Derivative

The UK Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the unmanned air vehicle that it plans to acquire under its recently-announced Protector effort will be a derivative of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Reaper that the Royal Air Force operates.

While the specific configuration that it will acquire is not yet known, the MoD confirmed to the Royal Aeronautical Society’s president’s conference that it will be a new version of the Reaper.

Details of Protector – the new name for what was previously known as Scavenger – were revealed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron in early October, but he did not say which UAV it would be.

However Air Cdre Peter Grinstead, head of UK unmanned air systems at the MoD, has revealed that a new Reaper will be selected, although more details on the exact configuration are not expected until a Main Gate decision is made in March.

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