An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line at Hurlburt Field, Fla., April 24, 2014.

An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line at Hurlburt Field, Fla., April 24, 2014. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. John Bainter

White House Wants More Reaper Drones To Fight ISIS

With the terrorism fight spreading the military wants more drones to fight ISIS.

President Barack Obama today requested a healthy increase in the number of MQ-9 Reaper drones that the Pentagon will purchase next year, further reversing the brief trend in fewer drone purchases. The numbers show that the Reaper is becoming the military’s favorite weapon in its fight against ISIS. But some experts say that the modest bump won’t be enough to fix the military’s much bigger drone problema growing deficit of drone pilots.

The Reaper, as a machine, is very similar to the famous Predator drone, which the Air Force essentially stopped buying in fiscal 2015. Both the Predator and the Reaper are made by General Atomics and look a lot alike. The difference is a matter of size and, thus, carrying capacity.

The Reaper, with a wingspan of 66 feet and a length of 36 feet—compared to a 55 foot wingspan and a length of 28 feet for the Predator—can carry two 500-pound GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs (bombs), and as many as four Hellfire missiles. The Predator can carry two missiles and no bombs. Like the Predator, the Reaper carries a lot of electronic targeting equipment such as the Raytheon AN/DAS-1 multi-spectral targeting system and various other cameras. It also has a variety of radar packages that the Predator doesn’t.

(Related: Did the White House Use Drone-Killing Technology?)

The Pentagon will buy 29 Reapers in FY 2016 at a cost of $821 million, up from 24 in 2015 and 20 in 2014. They cost about $14 million apiece.

The  2014 drop reflected ambitions to move away from the Middle East, an actual decline in the number of high-value targets to pursue in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and build up forces in Asia. The emphasis in Asia was not on drones, which Chinese anti-air defenses could brush aside easily. A machine like the Reaper is most suitable for targeted strikes and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, in a place like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or Pakistan.

Paul Scharre, fellow at the Center for a New American Security, says the current situation in the Middle East is in part a reflection of the shortsightedness of previous plans to curb drone purchases. The allure of flashier systems that the military could use in an utterly unlikely war against China got in the way of common sense, he argues.

Military capabilities that will track terrorists and protect American lives should not be where the Pentagon should be looking for cuts.
Paul Scharre, fellow at the Center for a New American Security

“The Pentagon continues to look at investments through the flawed prism of a ‘most likely, most dangerous’ perspective when it comes to future contingencies. That is, they tend to look at conflicts against groups like ISIS as ‘most likely,’ but a major war against a sophisticated military as ‘most dangerous,’” Scharre told Defense One. “The president has clearly placed counterterrorism as his number one national security priority, but it isn't the number one priority for the Pentagon. That needs to change. That doesn't mean that the bulk of the Pentagon's budget needs to be spent on counterterrorism. What it does mean is that it should be the number one priority for resources. Military capabilities that will track terrorists and protect American lives should not be where the Pentagon should be looking for cuts.”

Today’s increase would represent the most Reapers the military has bought since 2013, when it purchased 36. They're slated to fly more often as well. The budget would allow the Pentagon increase the number of daily combat air patrols to 76, including 60 Air Force Reaper patrols. The 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review had recommend cutting the number of patrols down to 55, reflecting the drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Defense Department budget documents released Monday, the increased patrol number “normalizes the ISR capacity to better align with ongoing and enduring operations and tempo.”

In other words, the threat of ISIS forced a change in patrol numbers.

Speaking at an event in September, undersecretary of defense for intelligence Michael Vickers forecast today’s announcement, crediting ISIS with ruining the Pentagon’s drone-cutting plans. “We thought we could reduce the rate of growth for our fleet—some—in the years ahead and now we’re really, really looking at that…We’ll probably wind up with a different ISR mix after the budget cycle than we would have a year ago because of the rise of ISIS and other challenges.”

(Related: The Rise of the Islamic State Could Mean More Drones)

But will a few extra drones be enough to help Kurdish, Iraqi and moderate Syrian opposition forces to defeat ISIS? Scharre expressed skepticism. The problem with the military’s drone capabilities isn’t a lack of equipment but a lack of manpower. 

“Increasing medium-altitude ISR is the right move, but this modest bump still won't come close to meeting demand. The main limitation is personnel, not platforms. In order to address the widening gap between supply and demand, the Department of Defense will have to take steps to alleviate its personnel problems,” says Scharre.

The Air Force has taken a few steps to address the problem. In January, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced a big jump in incentive pay, from $650 per month to $1,500 per month, in order to make the job of drone piloting and image analysis more appealing. But it remains a tough job, often requiring pilots to work more than 14 hours a day. It’s also a very specialized skill. Upward mobility for drone operators within the military is extremely limited. That’s not the case everywhere. The private sector could begin to siphon trained pilots away from the military as early as this year, especially if the FAA passes a law mandating that commercial drone pilots have licenses, which is what many expect to happen.

Scharre outlined three steps to fix the military’s drone pilot gap: begin training enlisted pilots to operate remotely piloted aircraft; field multi-aircraft control technology so one pilot can monitor multiple aircraft while in transit; and leverage automated intelligence processing tools to reduce the analysis burden.

On the second point, research is well underway. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, recently called for ideas related to a project called Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment,” or CODE. It seeks to build technology to allow gangs of semiautonomous aircraft to “collaborate to find, track, identify and engage targets,” so that one pilot could operate several drones.

The military is also building up machine learning and big data processing capabilities so that software can do more image recognition.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.