Un Reaper The Armée de l'Air has set a new record of "resistance" during operations in the Sahel theater reaching the 25 hours and 6 consecutive flight minutes. The remotely piloted aircraft framed in the 01 / 33 Belfort (Escadron drone), placed under surveillance by the Ben 3200 km sharian tract monitored by the anti-terrorist operation "Barkhane", took off from Niamey, Nigeria, and continued its reconnaissance, breaking the December 2014 record that had touched the 24 hours and 30 minutes.
The pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Richard, is part of the 3 crews of the squadron which totaled 5200 flight hours with the MQ-9 in this operation, stressed the importance of the information available during these "long area surveillance missions" for intelligence operations in the fight against terrorist armed groups that can act in the Sahel belt that runs through the so-called G5 (Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso).
Next to the 3 Reaper, 2 EADS drones operate Harfang, 4 Dassault Rafale, 4 Mirage 2000 and more than 10 helicopters.
(photo: Ministère de la Défense)
