A British Reaper drone has used Hellfire missiles to hit an Islamic State terrorist in a building in northern Syria.
The Ministry of Defence say that on Tuesday,20 December, a Reaper remotely piloted aircraft kept close observation on a building near Al Bab in northern Syria “where at least one active Daesh terrorist was known to be present”.
“Great care was taken to ensure that any potential risks to civilians were understood and minimised before the Reaper’s crew fired a salvo of two Hellfire missiles which both struck the target accurately.”
The news release added:
“Royal Air Force aircraft have continued to conduct armed reconnaissance patrols against elements of the Daesh terrorist network in Syria, as well as supporting, as required, the Iraqi authorities’ efforts to keep Daesh out of their country.”
What is Operation Shader?
Operation Shader began on the 9th of August 2014, when the Royal Air Force began a series of humanitarian air aid drops onto Mount Sinjar in Northern Iraq.
The air drops were ordered following the genocide of the Yazidi people and other ethnic minorities by Daesh in Northern Iraq, which had led to them fleeing onto the mountainside to escape Daesh. Following the conclusion of the aid drops, the operation quickly changed to become the UK element in the US-led coalition that began the campaign to destroy Daesh. Based out of Cyprus, the Royal Air Force continues to survey and strike targets in Iraq and Syria as part of the Global Coalition under the banner of Op SHADER.
Today, UK jets and drones fly frequent patrols, but the reduced presence of Islamic State means fewer engagements.
You can read more about the operation here.
Syria has for the last year been overshadowed by Ukraine. I am hoping that the UK Government is commited to stay the course in both countries providing everything that might be needed?
Trouble is I. Not sure anyone really knows what the long term goals are in Syria or what the end game looks like. The goals of op Shader for Iraq are pretty clear, support the government of Iraq in removing Islamic state from its boards….the goals for Syria are a bit more difficult as your never going to shift Islamic state completely without the proper infrastructure on the ground and Syria is just a mess beyond imagination with at least 8 sides last time I reviewed the maps with backing and intervention from a stupid number of external state actors.… Read more »
Are we still getting 20 Protectors to replace the 10 Repears we have?
Plus some unmanned Tempest, latter production F35, I guess too?
16. The original quote was the typical “up to 20”
My concern, which I’ve expressed here before, is what will replace Reaper in theatre to do this stuff with Protector based in the UK, which has never happened with either Predator or Reaper due to the safety aspects.
If Protector is also involved, hopefully, in the maritime area I want to see Reaper, which is still perfectly good from what I can see, kept in the M East letting Protector do the UK mission.
Ah I see, hopefully we might get some seaguardians in thr future to top us up to thr full 20 but that’s for another time and place to discuss.
Have we started to take deliveries of the protectors yet and have they confirmed the retirement dates of the reapers?
No, next year 1st comes to the UK.
The 1st one is in RAF colours in the US.
There is substantial redevelopment going on at Waddington to make it the MOB for the type, involving a rebuild on the east side of the runway.
I’m not aware of any Reaper OOS date. I hope not as they’re too useful IMO.
Hi Daniele, first let me wish you a good festive season. As for me, my Christmas wishlist would be Protector MQ-9B STOL for the carriers. Possibly the UK, Aus, Spain and Italy could do a joint investment into the development of the MQ-9B STOL. If we could get the STOL capability we could even with our limited numbers of F35Bs have by 2025 both carriers at sea with say 24 F35Bs and 12 MQ-9Bs each. If we could come to some arrangment with the USMC to have four V-22 Ospreys in the COD and air to air refueling roles then… Read more »
And a Merry Christmas to you, Ron.
Merry Christmas Mate, have a good one!
Merry Christmas Chris, to you and your family.
In this day and age of woke, I have to laugh at how the PC crowd demanded we replace ISIS with Daesh because Islamic State of Iraq and the levant (ISIS) could be construed as Islamophobic as it contains Islamic , yet don’t appear to have realised that Daesh is the Arabic acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and the levant. It’s the same thing, its just that the wonks don’t want to hear Islamic stated in English as it makes them uncomfortable.
I thought it was because Daesh is actually considered more derogatory than ISIS to Arabic speakers. Thats why people wanted to change it, why go with the name they like “ISIS” instead of the name they actively hate. Below quote is taken from there Wikipedia page (I know not the greatest source but it does have its uses when being lazy) This name has been widely used by ISIL’s Arabic-speaking detractors,[153][155] for example when referring to the group whilst speaking amongst themselves, although—and to a certain extent because—it is considered derogatory, as it resembles the Arabic words Daes (“one who… Read more »
Ah that explains why the BBC who have knocked out a podcast of why Shamima Begum is not a Monster refer to the head chopping guild as ISIS and not Daesh
She just made bad choices🙈, I get it she’s young, easily led etc. But actions have consequences and had the land grab actually worked she would probably have a different story about how great the caliphate is etc etc.
Whether she should have her citizenship taken away I’m not sure. Don’t know the ins and outs of it.
More of the issue is why she’s been given any airtime at all. Ignore her. Nobody wants to hear her storytelling.
100% in agreement with you Monkey spanker.
“”A British Reaper drone has used Hellfire missiles to hit an Islamic State terrorist in a building in northern Syria.”” The bunfight in the Ukraine has shown that UAVs are vulnerable to AAA, with Moscow losing so many, they have had to outsource to Iran to make up some of that shortfall. To that end I have to ask, is the British armies collection of UAVs enough to last more than a few days during a bunfight with a near peer? Reason I mention this, is was I read the other day that Poland has received its first batch of… Read more »
Problem with the British army is we don’t have any AAA any more beyond Browning .5″ Mg to counter enemy UAVs..
Not dedicated AAA but the Rarden cannon is supposedly effective against helicopters. I don’t know how effective it is against drones though nor whether CTA 40mm is.
farouk, That’s the criminal aspect of UK procurement. I know from working with two UK companies that had a better solution than the Heron. Their version projections (and as they have a great deal of experience in small drone aircraft used in civilian drones used for surveying and long range SAR. There was no doubt in the circles that they would have delivered on their promise by 2021) had legs of 70-75 hours, ceiling of 38,000ft, top sped of 155-178kn, and a payload of up to 320Kg. The MOD was intensely lobbied in 2018, yet showed no interest as they… Read more »
Yep and all the ones that got shot down unfortunately still landed on the hundreds of electric stations and sub stations all over Ukraine knocking out over 50% of the Ukraine electric supply
Will the Middle East ever been able to defend itself or are British and American taxpayers doomed to fund their defense forever????
Forever is a very long time indeed; for the foreseeable future–very probably. 🤔☹️
With the commitment to NetZero, our interest in unsustainable hydro-carbon energy is clearly time limited. Should the locals be wise enough to invest in dependable sustainable power generation we may be more interested again. Dependable and politically acceptable power supply having been shown to be a vital state interest. The unit price clearly doesn’t represent the true costs. Pricing risk seems to be done badly or not at all by the so called free market. How long will we take responsibility for the disfunctional and undemocratic rulers in the future? For so long as they are the least worst option,… Read more »
It still beggars belief in this day and age, that we waste a Hellfire on a single person shacked up in a building. At $150,000 a shot, is this value for money? A number of years ago, I was a joint terminal attack controller (JTAC). I was in a position where I had to make a snap decision on how to take out a target. This target was giving corrective fire control coordinates to a mortar team. That was lobbing shells at a fort. I could see him clearly, his only weapon was a satphone. Yet he presented a clear… Read more »
Obvious.
A guidance wing kit on brick would do the job.
There was that fury weapon. It was a light bomb made out of starstreak or caam bits without the rocket motor. It should of been cheap. Maybe it was textron that were working on it.
It would of done nicely.
“On a brick”, that made me chuckle no end
Starstreak, Martlet and Fury are products of Shorts which is now part of Thales. The TB2 UAV has used similar guided bombs to Fury with hood effect in Ukraine. So there is very good precedence for us to use something similar.
I see the APKWS is now being adapted to a counter drone roll as well. Relatively cheap and already available in large quantities.
It definitely makes sense. UAVs do not have the situational awareness to counter the oncoming missile using aerobatics something like APKWS. As the Electro-Optical turret has a relatively narrow field of view, so the operator is likely go miss it approaching. Which means it doesn’t need to be overly agile like a dedicated surface to air/air to air missile. Using semi-active laser homing as used by APKWS, also means the seeker can be made pretty cheaply and quickly. But it does have its limitations, such as being more difficult to lock on to multiple targets simultaneously. When you consider that… Read more »
In another news Romania chooses Watchkeeper X of Elbit Systems : 21 drones (7 systems) 408 M$
Evolution of WK 450
I think that Thales UK own some part of it.
Pity we can’t do more than moral support, supplying weapons & training to combat Russia’s terrorist war against Ukraine. Untold epression & death for all who won’t kow tow to Assad & his Russian backers.
So a $150,000 missile was used to kill one taliban member???