The UK is recruiting RAAF pilots to fly its armed MQ-9 Reaper fleet over Syria and Iraq because of a “challenging” shortage of its own crew.
The news comes ahead of a planned uptick in operational capacity through 2024; Britain’s fleet is scheduled to swell from 9 Reapers to 16 Protectors at a cost of £1.1 billion.
At the same time, Australian personnel are reportedly hoping to gain experience at the helm of the Reaper, after it was selected ahead of the Skyguardian for introduction Down Under as part of Air 7003.
Though the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has yet to confirm numbers of Australians involved with the program, an addendum to the annual report of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority revealed that a pilot shortage issue had been solved in part through both the use of “Royal Australian Air Force exchange officers, and a pathway to using contractors to relieve Royal Air Force personnel at the deployed location”.
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