[Travis McGee]

I'll bet the Dept of Homeland Security can't wait to get some of these babies.

With a 66-foot wingspan, the Reaper is roughly the size of the A-10 attack airplane, and can carry 3,000 pounds of weapons—more than 10 times the capacity of the Predator. It can fly at up to 288 miles per hour, allowing it to transit from an operating base to a patrol area almost twice as fast as the Predator. The typical on-station time is 15 hours. It can cruise at 50,000 feet “clean”—that is, without weapons—but typically flies at about 30,000 feet, fully loaded.

“People call it ‘Predator on steroids,’ but it’s really more than that,” Greene asserted.

The Predator is described as a “killer scout”—dedicated chiefly to ISR but with a limited ability to shoot at targets of opportunity. However, the Reaper is defined as a “hunter killer,” meaning that it is dedicated to strike and yet still has sizeable ISR capabilities, including electro-optical, infrared, low-light TV, and synthetic aperture radar.

Air Combat Command compares the Reaper less to a Predator than to an F-16 fighter, which is meant to attack ground targets but which can use targeting pods to collect and transmit full-motion video to air operations centers and troops on the ground.

Guiding the Reaper The typical Reaper weapons load includes two GBU-12 laser guided bombs and four AGM-114 Hellfire laser guided missiles, but it can carry up to four LGBs. It eventually will carry both 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions and 250-pound Small Diameter Bombs. These GPS guided weapons will allow Reaper to precisely attack targets through bad weather.

[Travis McGee]

[Armando Guerra]

The U.S. military is coming out of the Afghanistan/Iraq wars with not only the next generation of weapons, but invaluable experience for fighting the next generation of war against insurgents. I think part of the problem the U.S. has had in Afghanistan and Iraq is that the weapons systems and tactics were still based on the cold war. As long as the democrats don't cut and run and end up eviscerating the defense department, our military will come out of this stronger than ever.

[Joe Brower]

As citizens, we need to continually do all we can to ensure that these gadgets stay pointed in the right direction.

[hoagy62]

Okay....so I’ve read the responses so far.

What’s the general opinion? I mean, are these things good or bad?

As far as I’m concerned...if they are used to kill terrorists or people trying to kill our troops...rock on, dude!

On the other hand...do you think these will be used against US, here in the United States? To what purpose?

Educate me, please!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

Just another step/tool in our message to the Islamofascist terrorists, “You can run but you can’t hide!”

[ReignOfError]

I'll bet the Dept of Homeland Security can't wait to get some of these babies.

DHS already has Predators. What advantage would the Reapers give them? It's not like they're going to be dropping JDAMs or firing Hellfires on US soil.

[OKSooner]

"I'll bet the Dept of Homeland Security can't wait to get some of these babies. "

LOL... I betcha maybe a dozen or so of these things hovering around and an air strike could be called in just about anywhere in the US...