The US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has provided details of a new enhanced variant of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9 Reaper medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that was first revealed by the Department of Defense (DoD) in a contract announcement from late January.
The USD34.03 million MQ-9 Medium Altitude Long Endurance Tactical (MALET) Lead-Off Hitter (LOH) contract is part of a rolling upgrade to the 37 MQ-9s procured by the US Air Force (USAF) on behalf of the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) that has been on going since fiscal year 2013 (FY 2013), a spokesperson for USSOCOM told IHS Jane's on 15 February.
Since FY 2013, the AFSOC's MQ-9s have received hardware and software capability drops to the platforms themselves as well as to their operating and training stations, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Allen explained. more
