In cooperation with the Estonian government and in support of our Baltic region allies and partner nations, U.S. Air Forces in Europe has temporarily relocated MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, personnel and support equipment assigned to the 52nd Expeditionary Operations Group Detachment 2 to Amari Air Base, Estonia. The aircraft will support Air, Land and Maritime Domain Awareness by leveraging the MQ-9’s inherent multi-role capabilities and support RPA Agile Combat Employment concepts.
The MQ-9 Reaper are temporarily moving from Miroslawiec Air Base, Poland, while Miroslawiec AB’s runway is under construction. The aircraft have been operating out of Poland since May 2018. The operations aim to promote stability and security within the region and strengthen relationships with NATO allies and other European partners. The MQ-9s will be launched and recovered by US personnel at the Romanian base, and controlled in flight at the Polish base. The detachment first stood up and reached initial operational capability at Miroslawiec in the spring of 2018.
The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the United States Air Force (USAF). The MQ-9 and other UAVs are referred to as Remotely Piloted Vehicles/Aircraft (RPV/RPA) by the USAF to indicate their human ground controllers. The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance.
