Be afraid, be very afraid, of the grim Reaper
If I was an al-Qaeda leader, my worst nightmare would be something called the MQ-9 Reaper.
The U.S. Air Force proposed the MQ-9 system in response to the Department of Defense request for global war on terrorism initiatives. It is larger and more powerful than the MQ-1 Predator and is designed to go after time-sensitive targets with persistence and precision and destroy or disable those targets.
The “M” is the Department of Defense designation for multi-role and “Q” means unmanned aircraft system. The “9” refers to the series of purpose-built remotely piloted aircraft systems.
You can read the technical specifications here.
The name chosen for the MQ-9 inevitably reminds me of the Hawker Hurricane IIC flown by my wife’s father in 1942. At the height of his success, he had an emblem painted on the starboard side of his aircraft. It depicted a scythe in yellow and across it a banner in red carrying the name ‘Night Reaper’
You can read more information on that particular aircraft here.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
You know so many interesting information. You might be very wise. I like such people. Don’t stop writing.