#MQ-9 Reaper

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Manevre periculoase britanice deasupra Mării Negre, aproape de România! VIDEO

Serviciul analitic Readovka anunță că o pereche de avioane de luptă britanice Eurofighter Typhoon au escortat un avion de recunoaștere electronică RC-135W Rivet Joint deasupra Mării Negre. Georgiana Arsene Potrivit datelor Flightradar, avioanele de vânătoare care escortau aeronava de recunoaștere au făcut un cerc deasupra Mării Negre. Aparent, escorta a fost necesară după incidentul recent cu…

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Пентагон опубликовал видео столкновения российского Су-27 с американским беспилотником MQ-9 Reaper

Сегодня утром 16 марта Пентагон опубликовал видео столкновения российского самолета Су-27 с американским беспилотником. Беспилотник MQ-9 Reaper разбился над Черным морем утром 14 марта. По версии США,... Читать дальше »

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🇾🇪 #Yemen: Houthi forces have released footage showing the downing of an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over Saada province. The downing marks the third of its kind since the beginning of the invasion of Gaza.

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Stormy sunset at Creech AFB, Nevada

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Houthi Success Swatting Reaper Drones Like Flies Exposes Chinks in US Military's High-Tech Armor

— Sputnik International | Saturday September 14, 2024

Yemen’s Houthi militia has now downed over a quarter billion dollars’ worth of General Atomics MQ-9 Reapers. Sputnik asked a leading regional affairs observer what will happen if the humbling trend continues.

The latest Reaper shootdown took place last Saturday while the drone was carrying out intelligence-gathering activities over Marib province in central Yemen, according to the Houthis. The US military initially refused to confirm the loss, holding out until Friday, when an anonymous DoD official told US state media that an Air Force MQ-9 had been “struck but then landed safely and was recovered by US partner forces on September 9” somewhere in the Middle East.

The Pentagon did not elaborate on where exactly the drone touched down, who recovered it or what shape it was in.

The damaged Reaper is at least the eighth $32 million-apiece US reconnaissance and strike UAV downed by the Houthis since last November.

On August 4, the Houthis blew a Reaper out of the sky over Saada, northwestern Yemen. An informed source told Sputnik the militia used a modernized Soviet 2K12 Kub air defense system to do. The Houthis are known to have adopted the Kub to fire Yemeni-made Fater-1 interceptor missiles.

On May 29, the Houthis destroyed an unmarked Reaper, possibly belonging to the CIA, over Marib, releasing footage of warriors wearing sandals standing on top of the downed drone.

On May 24, the Houthis shot down an MQ-9 over Sanaa, Yemen’s capital.

On May 17, another Reaper was destroyed over Marib.

On April 27, the Houthis shot down an MQ-9 in Sadaa province in northwestern Yemen.

On February 19, a Reaper was destroyed over al-Hudaydah city in western Yemen.

On November 8, 2023, a US Air Force Reaper was downed over the Red Sea somewhere off the Yemeni coast.

The Houthis shot down three additional Reapers between 2017 and 2019, along with an array of other pricey NATO-made weaponry during the US’s attempts to help a Gulf coalition oust the militia from power.

Dangerous Precedent For US MIC

“The downing of yet another drone could negatively impact the reputation of the US military-industrial complex on the international stage. Confidence in the effectiveness of US defense technologies and military power could be undermined. This may lead to potential clients in US military and technology exports becoming concerned about the failures of American products in the field,” political scientist and international affairs observer Dr. Mehmet Rakipoglu told Sputnik, commenting on Washington's Houthi headache.

Politically and strategically, the success of the Houthi anti-drone campaign may undermine the justifications for continued US operations and presence in the region, and even “raise questions about the effectiveness of US power projection policies…potentially threatening Washington’s regional and global strategic interests in the long term,” Rakipoglu, an assistant professor at Turkiye's Mardin Artuklu University, explained.

The US is between a rock and a hard place battling the Houthis, unwilling to become further entangled in a large-scale confrontation for fear of sparking a regional war with their Iranian Axis of Resistance allies, but unable to extract themselves without losing face.

The Houthis have shown that they “have the capacity to counter one of the most advanced technologies” in the US’s arsenal, and can outcompete the Pentagon on costs too, Rakipoglu says.

“The relative cheapness and local production-based equipment used by the Houthis can lead to more losses for the US, [whose] military expenditures run into billions of dollars. This emerges as not only a financial issue but also a strategic one,” according to the academic, raising “questions about the effectiveness of American military spending,” and calling “into question how sustainable it is to rely solely on technological superiority.”

The Houthis' success against the US-led armada assembled against them has proven highly embarrassing for Washington and its allies. On Friday, former Royal Navy Commander Tom Sharpe, admitted the failure of efforts by the West to bring the Yemeni militia to heel.

"They're achieving their ends, all of them, and we're achieving none of ours. We're spending millions and millions of dollars on not winning. It's a real problem," Sharpe said, referencing the Houthi promise to continue their Red Sea blockade until peace is achieved in Gaza.

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Drone MQ-9 Reaper Amerika Dijatuhkan Oleh 2 SU-27 Rusia di Laut Hitam

Sebuah jet tempur Rusia memaksa jatuh drone Angkatan Udara AS di atas Laut Hitam pada hari Selasa setelah merusak baling-baling drone MQ-9 Reaper Amerika, menurut seorang pejabat AS yang mengetahui insiden tersebut. Drone Reaper dan dua jet SU-27 Flanker beroperasi di perairan internasional di atas Laut Hitam ketika salah satu jet Rusia dengan sengaja terbang di depan dan membuang bahan bakar di…

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Yemen downs another MQ-9 Reaper, 8 Nov 2024

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Incredible double mishap in the German Navy off the coast of Yemen! The German warship's radar systems incorrectly recognized a drone circling overhead as hostile. The “Hessen” then fired two rockets at them. But in reality the unmanned aircraft was a US MQ-9 Reaper drone (20 meter wingspan, 30 million euros). A blessing in disguise for the Americans: Both German SM2 interceptor missiles did not reach their target for technical reasons, but instead fell into the sea without achieving anything.

[2024-02-28, Bild is German private media] The only thing more embarrassing than a blue-on-blue incident is a *failed* blue-on-blue incident.

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🚨🇾🇪 Yemeni Armed Forces:

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Footage of Yemeni air defenses shooting down an American MQ-9 drone while it was conducting hostile activities in the skies over Ma'rib Governorate on 17-05-2024.

Note: the cost of an MQ-9 Reaper drone is $31 million u.s. dollars

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Speculative Analysis: Why TFP Soundwave is so Terrifying to His Fellow Cybertronians

Time for an essay on why I think TFP Soundwave might have chosen his current cryptid form—electrical tentacles and all. There’s a TL;DR at the end, so feel free to scroll down first and then decide if you want to read the full thing.

This will involve cross-continuity speculation, centered around TFP / Aligned but with some IDW / MTMTE lore thrown in. This could also loosely apply to Bayverse Soundwave, but I won’t be focusing on him. I’m confident you all can infer the potential implications for that version of his character by the time you reach the end.

Okay, so I’ve seen several fellow TFP fans speculate about why Soundwave went from beefy gladiator to bonafide cryptid. Some say it could have been due to the loss of his horde of “minicons” (the term used in ‘Exodus’ by Alex Irvine). Others think it was just Soundwave’s way of adapting to the direction of the war by taking on a form that would give him the best strategic advantage in his position as Megatron’s communications officer. I agree with the latter, but I think there could be more to it than that.

As we see in the flashback for Ratchet’s story and the TFP Titan comics, Soundwave had his current frame type, armor, and alt mode back on Cybertron:

[Sarcastic Soundwave: Superior]

In the real world, Soundwave’s design is based on the MQ-9 Reaper military drone—an earth-based aircraft, but I’m not going to address that small discrepancy since it’s not relevant to this analysis. Skinny, cryptid drone Soundwave existing prior to his arrival on earth supports my theory anyway.

“Can’t we throw a tarp over him? He’s creepin’ me out.”

-Bulkhead in Minus One

On the surface, Bulkhead’s comment and Smokescreen’s subsequent response seem like an interaction between a couple of Autobots who are unnerved because they’re familiar with Soundwave’s reputation—Bulkhead more so than Smokescreen since the latter had probably not seen Soundwave up close in action before coming to earth. However, I think some of Bulkhead’s fear might have been due to an entirely different reason: Sparkeaters.

While reading MTMTE #3, my eyes were met with this lovely sight /s :

[Hey, wasn’t the energon eater in Rescue Bots called “Sparky” too? I guess it’s a cross-continuity tradition to call life-sucking parasites “Sparky” at least once.]

Terrifying? Yes. But I stared in horrified awe at this abomination and thought, “Wait. One. Fragging. Minute. I’m having a galaxy brain moment.”

Mind. Blown. Their overall sharp, jagged appearance, their thin, but formidable frames, their prehensile cables extending from somewhere inside (fuel lines for the sparkeater; multipurpose tentacles for Soundwave). I was—and still am—fascinated by the uncanny resemblance.

[Now who’s Sparky?]

It’s true that sparkeaters aren’t confirmed to be canon in the Aligned continuity, but their existence isn’t denied either. We got something similar with the zombie Terrorcons, but those were a new phenomenon produced either by Megatron’s blind ambition and stupidity or Knockout and Starscream’s lack of forethought and scientific restraint. For the sake of where I’m taking this, let’s assume that sparkeaters, as defined by IDW, do exist in the Aligned universe. What would this mean for Soundwave’s disturbing choice of frame/body type? Why choose a visual motif so strongly associated with death and disease?

One word: Mimicry

Mythologically, historically, and medically, sparkeaters are inseparable from death and disease. Their very existence instills fear in most Cybertronians. What better way for Soundwave to strike terror into the sparks of his enemies (and potential enemies) than to take on a physical form that resembles the sparkeater—something that has been known to kill normal Cybertronians using a deeply disturbing, painful, and even sacrilegious method? Even though the initial shock of seeing a “sparkeater” show up during or around a fight would have dissipated once the Autobots realized it was mostly cosmetic, an impression would have been left. Coupled with his spy capabilities and gladiator-style prowess in combat, a message would have been sent: Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

And there you have it, folks! Another reason to love Soundwave’s design.

Bonus:

I could see Soundwave being called a few things by allies and enemies alike: “The Decepticon Sparkeater,” “Soundwave the Sparkeater,” or just “The Sparkeater.”

An interaction between two Autobot scouts:

Scout 1, over comms: “You there, kid? Who is it? Who did Megatron send this time?”

Scout 2: “It’s The Sparkeater! He’s here!”

1: “You mean Soundwave!? Do you have a visual?”

2: “How many ‘Cons do we see walkin’ around looking like sparkeaters??? Of course it’s Soundwave! And yeah, I’ve got a visual.”

1: “Aw, hell. Things just got a whole lot more complicated.”

TL;DR: Soundwave may have put more thought into his appearance than is obvious. He may have opted to look like a sparkeater as a way of sending a highly effective warning.