{"id":12138,"date":"2024-05-06T03:14:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T21:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=12138"},"modified":"2025-03-30T07:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T02:04:21","slug":"mq-9b-predator-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mq-9b-predator-drone\/","title":{"rendered":"What is MQ-9B Predator?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About MQ-9B Predator:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>high-altitude, long-endurance armed <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/questions\/the-use-of-unmanned-aerial-vehicles-by-our-adversaries-across-the-borders-to-ferry-armsammunitions-drugs-etc-is-a-serious-threat-to-the-internal-security\/\" target=\"_blank\">Unmanned Aerial Vehicle<\/a> (UAV), capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations.<\/li>\n<li>It is a <strong>variant of the MQ-9 &#8220;Reaper<\/strong>&#8221; <strong>developed by General Atomics<\/strong> Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI), with its primary purpose being <strong>for the United States Air Force<\/strong> (USAF).<\/li>\n<li>The United States uses these drones for<strong> surveillance, intelligence gathering,<\/strong> and <strong>airstrikes<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The MQ-9B drone has <strong>two variants: Sky Guardian and Sea Guardian<\/strong>. The <strong>latter<\/strong> has been in <strong>operation by the Indian Navy<\/strong> since 2020.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Features:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It can <strong>carry up to 5,670 kg<\/strong> and has a fuel capacity of 2,721 kg.<\/li>\n<li>It can operate at altitudes exceeding<strong> 40,000 feet.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It <strong>can fly as close as 250 metres<\/strong> from the ground without the target even having an inkling it is there unless spotted.<\/li>\n<li>With a <strong>maximum endurance<\/strong> of <strong>40 hours<\/strong>, they provide a reliable platform for prolonged surveillance.<\/li>\n<li>It has a top speed of 275 mph, or 442 km\/h.<\/li>\n<li>It is <strong>armed with strike missiles<\/strong>, allowing it to engage and eliminate enemy targets with high precision. It can <strong>carry four Hellfire missiles<\/strong> and around 450 kg of bombs.<\/li>\n<li>This feature enhances its effectiveness in <strong>various roles<\/strong>, including <strong>land and maritime surveillance, anti-submarine warfare<\/strong>, <strong>anti-surface warfare<\/strong>, electronic warfare, and <strong>expeditionary missions.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is <strong>capable of automatic take-offs and landings<\/strong>, providing operational flexibility.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It <strong>can safely integrate into civil airspace<\/strong>, enabling joint forces and civil authorities to obtain real-time situational awareness in the maritime domain, day or night.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What is an unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)?<\/h3>\n<p>An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft that carries no human pilot or passengers. UAVs\u2014sometimes called drones\u2014can be fully or partially autonomous but are more often controlled remotely by a human pilot. RAND research has contributed to the public discussion on the use of drones for warfare and surveillance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneycontrol.com\/news\/business\/india-to-strategically-place-hunter-killer-predator-drones-from-us-in-up-tamil-nadu-12712355.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">India to strategically place &#8216;hunter-killer&#8217; Predator drones from US in UP, Tamil Nadu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MQ-9B Predator is a high-altitude, long-endurance armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}