The Air Force Deliberately Crashed an MQ-9A Reaper Drone
The Air Force lost an MQ-9A Reaper drone in June 2020—because officials ordered its crew to deliberately crash it.
The uncrewed plane suffered a major fuel leak during a mission in the U.S. Africa Command area, and did not have enough fuel to return to base.
Rather than let the plane gracefully run out of fuel, Air Force officials ordered the crew to crash the Reaper into the ground hard.
Last summer, the Air Force purposely crashed a drone flying at an undisclosed location in Africa in order to destroy the plane, according to an unclassified accident report that the service released earlier this month.
Air Force officials discovered that the drone, an MQ-9A Reaper, was leaking fuel and unable to safely return to its base. Rather than gently guide the unmanned plane to the ground, the service ordered the Reaper's remote crew to crash it into the ground hard. That way, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to recover sensitive items, like sensors or weapons, from the crash site.
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The incident took place on June 24, 2020 in the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility. Africa Command, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, encompasses almost the entire African continent, with the exception of Egypt. The accident report does not mention where the incident specifically occurred, but U.S. forces are known to conduct operations in North Africa and in the Horn of Africa region.
According to the report, the MQ-9A Reaper—assigned to the 214th Attack Group ("Black Sheep"), 162nd Wing, Arizona Air National Guard—took off on June 23 at approximately 7:05 p.m. local time from an undisclosed location. The report merely describes the drone's mission as an "operational mission." Reaper drones, armed with Hellfire missiles or Paveway laser-guided bombs, typically conduct such missions as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; armed overwatch; or strike.
At 6:40 a.m., nearly 12 hours into the mission, the pilot and sensor operator discovered the drone was missing fuel. The crew initially could not determine the reason for the leak, but the sensor operator turned the Reaper's sensor turret backward, and discovered fuel pouring from the drone's fuselage. A Reaper drone can carry up to 3,900 pounds of fuel at a time across seven internal fuel tanks.
Officials in charge of the mission ordered the drone to return to base, and the crew originally believed that they could safely land the aircraft back at its airfield. The fuel leak proved unstoppable, however, and the Air Force ordered the crew to crash-land the aircraft in a way that would minimize the chances that adversaries could salvage any useful equipment from the crash site.
The aircraft finally ran out of fuel at 9:14 a.m., and the pilot increased air speed as the Reaper descended to maximize impact velocity. Another flying surveillance asset observed the crash.
General Atomics ASI—the Reaper's manufacturer—reviewed the incident with Air Force officials, ultimately blaming the loss of fuel on a malfunction of the forward electric fuel heater. This eventually caused "fuel exhaustion," and the loss of the aircraft. Total losses, according to the accident report, added up to $11,290,000, or the cost of the drone. No persons or property, the Air Force explains, were harmed during the incident.
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