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Reaper Drones Not Survivable In Hostile Airspace Over Ukraine, Defense Chiefs Say

Reaper Drones Not Survivable In Hostile Airspace Over Ukraine, Defense Chiefs Say
A General Atomics' MQ-9 Reaper, armed with Lockheed Martin GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided munitions and Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire missiles flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan (U.S. Air Force Photo)

There is no sense in providing MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to assist Ukrainian forces in their war against Russian invaders because the drones are not survivable against Russian air defenses, senior defense officials said on Tuesday. “Number one, it's not survival,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It's big and slow. It's gonna get nailed by the Russian air defense systems and, in terms of its capabilities,…

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