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France seeks $1.5B MQ-9 Reaper deal
France is seeking to procure MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft from the United States in a package deal worth an estimated $1.5 billion.
News of the proposed sale, reported to Congress by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, closely follows word from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., maker of the Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle that it planned to develop a variant of the aircraft that would meet NATO and general European civil airworthiness requirements
The MQ-9 Reaper is another name for the Predator B, a hunter/killer unmanned aerial vehicle designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance. Intelligence and reconnaissance missions by the U.S. Air force. It has a maximum speed of 300 mph, a service ceiling of 50,000 feet, an operational ceiling of 25,000 feet and an endurance of 14 hours when fully loaded.
U.S. allies using the aircraft are Britain and Italy.
The BQ-9 Reaper package requested by France includes 16 aircraft, eight mobile ground control stations, 48 Honeywell TPE331-10T turboprop engines, 24 satellite Earth terminal sub-stations, 40 Ku band link-airborne communication systems, 40 General Atomics Lynx (exportable) synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator systems, 40 AN/DAS-1 multispectral targeting systems, and 40 ground data terminals
France seeks $1.5B MQ-9 Reaper deal - UPI.com