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U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Sunday that they used MQ-9 reaper drones to take out ISIS leader Usamah al-Muhajir in Eastern Syria. No civilian casualties have been reported.U.S. airstrike targets ISIS leader in eastern Syria.https://t.co/RtzKlBhXKE pic.twitter.com/A6IFnUGlXB— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 9, 2023“We have made it clear that we remain committed to the defeat of ISIS throughout the region,” said CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael Kurilla. “ISIS remains a threat, not only to the region but well beyond.”The CENTCOM press release said that the operation will hurt ISIS’s attempts at further acts of terror:This will disrupt and degrade ISIS’s ability to...

It's probably much bigger than you think. It has a payload (explosives) of 3850 pounds, which can include multiple 500 pound laser guided bombs and 8 hellfire missiles. It can fly up to 35 hours. As of March 2021, the US Air Force has stated that the unit cost of an MQ-9 Reaper is $56.5 million, though I have read estimates that the true cost is closer to $100 million. See picture below in first comment to see how big it is. It was flown with the transponder off.

Three U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence said the highest levels of the Kremlin approved the aggressive actions of Russian military fighter jets against a U.S. military drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday. The Russian jets dropped jet fuel on the MQ-9 Reaper, an unprecedented action, and two of the officials said the intelligence suggests the intent seemed to be to throw the drone off course or disable its surveillance capabilities. It was “Russian leadership’s intention to be aggressive in the intercept,” said one of the officials. One official said he had not gotten indications that the signoff went...

Firefighters have been working nonstop to put out multiple wildfires ravaging land and homes from the hills to the beaches of Southern California. High above the flames and smoke, heavy duty materiel is helping them better battle those blazes. In a partnership between state fire protection agency CAL FIRE and the California Air National Guard, unmanned drones have been assisting firefighters by relaying information that those on the ground could not otherwise get. The MQ-9 Reapers that were deployed this week have sensors that can see through smoke and feed back live video to the fire command. “We can show [firefighters]...

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq — It looks more Star Wars than Iraq War, an unmanned aerial killer ready to fly its first combat mission in Iraq. But the MQ-9 Reaper is more than just a stunning sight — it may represent the future of combat aviation. ... But the Reaper was built with offense in mind. It can carry four Hellfire missiles (the Predator carries only two), and it is equipped with a pair of 500-pound laser-guided bombs.