It was recently learned that the UCAV General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper of the 432nd Wing, stationed in Nevada, they used the GBU-38 satellite-guided bombs for the first time on a combat mission.
I Reaper have long been homologated for the use of the Guided Bombs GBU-38 / B JDAM from 253 kg - can carry up to a number of four - but had not yet had any information about their use against real targets, as up to today the interventions of remotely piloted aircraft were carried out with the use of AGM-114 short-range missiles Hellfire and the laser-guided bombs GBU-12 / B from 295 kg (it would seem that the baptism of the fire of this configuration occurred in the Syrian conflict, during the operation Inherent Resolve of the 2014 against the militiamen of the Islamic state).
It seems likely that, after the go-ahead by the Congress about the possibility of arming the UCAVs of the Italian Air Force, even the Reaper of the 32 ° Stormo can be optimized to use the Joint Direct Attack Munition with GPS guidance.
(photo: US Air Force)
