Description:

This is a detailed yet lightweight 3D model of the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

Technical Notes:

This model includes GBU-12 Paveway II missiles and Hellfire 2 missiles.

Surfaces are parented and pivoted for animation, such as that the local animation pivots should allow easy animation of flaps, ailerons, and trims.
There are two group objects in the scene which have no children, these are intended to animate the rear landing gear up in to the compartment. To use these, reparent the rear landing gear to the respective left and right rear gear animation groups, and note the keys are set for 1 (fully down), and 40 (fully up). If you use the group key values the gear will lift without intersecting the drive bays.

Polygon Count:

Faces 57956
Verts 58755

With Armaments:

Faces 257620
Verts 242427

Textures:

Detailed textures are in 8K resolution including color, specular, and bump/normal maps. The photoshop master file is available for you to download to easily repaint surfaces with the UV overlay visible. Renders are using the 8K version of the textures.

History:

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, one component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS)) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the United States Air Force (USAF). The MQ-9 and other UAVs are referred to as Remotely Piloted Vehicles/Aircraft (RPV/RPA) by the USAF to indicate ground control by humans.

The MQ-9 is a larger, heavier, more capable aircraft than the earlier General Atomics MQ-1 Predator and can be controlled by the same ground systems. The Reaper has a 950-shaft-horsepower (712 kW) turboprop engine (compared to the Predator's 115 hp (86 kW) piston engine). The greater power allows the Reaper to carry 15 times more ordnance payload and cruise at about three times the speed of the MQ-1.

The aircraft is monitored and controlled, including weapons employment, by aircrew in the Ground Control Station (GCS). The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance. In 2006, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force General T. Michael Moseley said: "We've moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles before Operation Iraqi Freedom, to a true hunter-killer role with the Reaper."

The USAF operated over 300 MQ-9 Reapers as of May 2021. Several MQ-9 aircraft have been retrofitted with equipment upgrades to improve performance in "high-end combat situations", and all new MQ-9s will have those upgrades. 2035 is the projected end of the service life of the MQ-9 fleet. The average unit cost of an MQ-9 is estimated at $30 million in 2022 dollars. The Reaper is also used by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the militaries of several other countries. The MQ-9A has been further developed into the MQ-9B, which (based on mission and payload) are referred to by General Atomics as SkyGuardian or SeaGuardian.