Today, it is used primarily for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations. It was initially designed as a highly precise and durable combat drone, with advanced sensors and cameras, robust communications, and the ability to loiter for more than 24 hours. The MQ-9 Reaper is considered the Air Force’s first “hunter-killer” UAV. But the UAVs have loitered over Gaza at around 24,000 to 26,000 feet, sometimes for several hours at a time, Smith said. Typically, only one Reaper is in the air at any given moment. According to a report by The New York Times, which first spotted the drones on publicly accessible flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the UAVs are remotely piloted MQ-9A extended range Reapers.Īmelia Smith, an open source intelligence and aviation researcher who has been tracking the MQ-9s for several days, told FLYING that by her estimate, a total of seven different aircraft are flying across the region, four of them per day.