It barely merited a paragraph in the newspapers. When an unmanned Predator was lost, the Air Force simply bombed the wreckage to prevent the enemy gaining intelligence, and wheeled out the next replacement.

When pilot Scott O’Grady was shot down over Bosnia in 1995, a huge rescue mission was mounted with full media coverage.

At least five were lost in Balkans campaign in the ‘90s, either to mechanical failure or Serbian missiles, but this was considered good value for the intelligence they gathered. This original Predator was designed in the 90’s as a low-cost sensor platforms, with a simple airframe and repurposed engine – the Rotax powering the Predator was also used for snowmobiles – and cost around $4m each. The Reaper or Predator-B, is an upgrade of the original MQ-1B Predator which was retired in 2018 by the USAF. It is a lot for what is, at heart, supposed to be an expendable drone. That makes them even more expensive than the pricey, top-end AH-64E Apache attack helicopter. In 2008 they were $14 million apiece, but the Air Force’s latest budget figures shows each new Reaper costs $32 million.

Iranian Quds Force General Soleimani was killed by a Reaper strike in January, showing they are employed against the very highest-value targets. The Reaper carries a suite of sophisticated sensors for a close-up view from 10,000 feet, and a mix of Hellfire missiles and laser- and GPS-guided bomb to attack targets. Launched from air bases close in the theater of operations, it can cruise for 27 hours, flown remotely from Nevada by relays of pilots. The Reaper is the mainstay of the Air Force’s drone force.

Reaper meaning