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The U.S. Air Force has released video that includes a unique clip that an MQ-9
Reaper captured of militants firing a rocket-propelled grenade at a C-130
Hercules airlifter that was performing an air drop of cargo at relatively low
altitude. In the full video, the drone's pilot and sensor operator, who later
struck those hostile forces, also offer an interesting behind-the-scenes look at
how the unmanned aircraft perform these kinds of armed overwatch missions.

The Air Force's 432nd Wing at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, one of the
service's premier drone units, posted the video on YouTube on Apr. 6, 2020. The
pilot, 1st Lieutenant Russel, and the sensor operator, Airman First Class
Ashley, both assigned to the 20th Attack Squadron, which itself is assigned to
the 432nd, but is based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, describe the
event. Their last names are not given for operational security reasons, though
Russel's callsign, Turret, is visible on his nametag. No information is given
about the date or location of the armed overwatch mission, which could have
taken place over any number of countries where the U.S. military is presently
engaged overseas.

"Most of the time we're just watching," 1st Lieutenant Russel said. "We're
collecting information on enemies and just making sure our friendlies are safe
and sometimes that involves us providing armed overwatch, which is our
capability to strike enemies."

"So, that day, we're flying a normal eight-hour shift and then comes the end of
the shift is when it all went down," Ashley said.

Their MQ-9 was asked to provide overwatch for the C-130's drop for "severely
undersupplied" U.S. forces at a remote outpost. In the video, shot from the
infrared camera in the drone's nose-mounted sensor turret, the C-130 can be seen
flying below and the cargo can be seen parachuting down behind it when a bright
ball of light goes flying across the screen.

"We immediately see from the bottom right corner of our screen a projectile come
.... towards the C-130," Russel said. "The sensor immediately slewed to the right
corner of origin."

"We have screeners who work with us – they are constantly watching our feed –
that helped us confirm that that's where it was shot from," Ashley added.

Thankfully, the RPG missed the Hercules and the cargo plane. In the video, the
airlifter visibly banks to the right, but it's unclear if that is an evasive
maneuver or not.

The MQ-9 video feed then picks up a group of individuals leaving a building near
the point of origin of the RPG launch. "They all left the building with large
weapons," Russel said.

"We know at that point that these are bad guys, they just shot at U.S. forces,
so we know something's about to happen. We know we need to watch these guys," he
continued. "I'm calling the Joint Terminal Attack Controller, or JTAC. I was
like 'hey, this is so-and-so in my MQ-9, we're supporting this C-130 that did an
airdrop, I just saw an RPG shoot across the screen. And his voice immediately
changed."

"He pulled up our feed, started watching it, gave us a game plan nine-line,"
Ashley said. "Where he's [the JTAC} at, he's talking to his commander, but we
are only talking to the JTAC."

A "nine-line" refers to the brief that JTACs give to aircraft orbiting above,
manned or unmanned, ahead of a close air support strike. It includes a host of
relevant information, including the target and its location, the desired
direction of attack to avoid hitting friendly forces or innocent bystanders, and
more, in a digestible format. Being able to communicate these details rapidly
and accurately is critical in these cases, where wasted seconds or
miscommunication could have disastrous results.

When Ashley says that the JTAC on the ground pulled up the MQ-9's feed, she
means this literally, too. For over a decade and a half, starting with fielding
of the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver (ROVER) system, the U.S.
military as a whole has made major progress in developing capabilities that
allow personnel on the ground to connect directly with aircraft above and see
what they see what the crew sees through their electro-optical and infrared
sensors. This helps speed up the process of positively identify targets during a
close air support scenario, makes it easier to avoid hitting friendlies or
causing collateral damage, and just improves all around situational awareness
for forces on the ground and in the air.

"We found the bad guys on the ground, tracked them for a little bit, and ended
up prosecuting" a strike on those militants, Ashley said. The time from the RPG
went flying toward the C-130 to when MQ-9 engaged the hostile forces was 34
minutes.

The entire incident is a prime example of the kind of armed overwatch and
persistent surveillance missions that Air Force MQ-9s, as well as their
now-retired MQ-1 Predator predecessors, have been providing for years now,
though almost exclusively in permissive environments, around the world. These
are missions that U.S. Army MQ-1C Gray Eagles also now regularly perform.

"You're hands-on, in the fight, saving our boots on the ground. This is no
joke," Ashley said in the video. "If you want to make a difference to the actual
fight that's out there, this is it."

But the video also comes at a time when the MQ-9 may be entering the back half
of its career, as the U.S. military's focus shifts to preparing for high-end
conflicts that will demand more advanced and less vulnerable platforms. In its
most recent budget request for the 2021 Fiscal Year, the Air Force announced its
intention to stop buying Reapers earlier than expected, which could have a
number of major implications, including for the drone's manufacturer General
Atomics, which you can read about more in this past War Zone piece.

Of course, the demand for aircraft, manned and unmanned, to conduct armed
overwatch missions to help protect U.S. forces, as well as their allies and
partners, isn't going away. For the foreseeable future, the Reapers will
continue to provide this invaluable service for American troops around the
world.




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