General Atomics has offered to sell the Ukrainian government two of its flagship
MQ-9 Reaper drones. While the idea of also sending the company’s
MQ-1C Gray Eagle to Ukraine has been floated a number of times since Russia’s all-out invasion began, it remains unclear exactly how valuable either type’s contributions could be considering their vulnerability when operating in contested airspace.
However, if accepted, WSJ said Kyiv would still have to pay about $10 million in preparation and shipping costs to get the Reapers to Ukraine, and around an additional $8 million each following year to maintain and sustain the drones.
A Ukrainian combat pilot whose callsign is ‘Juice’ spoke to how this reality would affect Gray Eagle specifically in
this past War Zone feature, saying the drone can only really be used “for reconnaissance” and “at large distances" and “not for attack missions because for attack missions you need to be closer [to the enemy].” He added, “It’s a very capable platform…but as for me it’s very dangerous to use it just on the front line. It’s not Afghanistan here.” With that, it isn’t difficult to see how the same could apply to Reaper even outside of an attack scenario.
Another Ukrainian aviator going by his callsign ‘Moonfish’ noted how, despite their initial success with Bayraktar TB2 drones, Ukrainian forces ultimately decided to scale back operations with the aircraft as Russia’s air defenses grew, which doesn’t bode well for Reapers or Gray Eagles. “[Bayraktar TB2 drones] were very useful and important in the very first days,” Moonfish said, referencing how the drones were helpful in stopping
columns of Russian armored vehicles and troops heading toward Kyiv. Still, once Russia built up more sophisticated air defenses, he said TB2s became “almost useless."