The US Air Force still doesn't know why it keeps losing MQ-9 Block 1 Reapers (UCAVs)

The US Air Force has lost a large number of Reapers to a problem with its Honeywell engine. A Congress critter pinned the number at 10! And the USAF has also said since they installed a backup electrical system for the engine, they have avoided another 17 (!) Reaper crashes in the past year.

It strikes me as rather odd. Glitches can and do happen, to be sure, but for it to be so mysterious and require a backup system install...

If there's firmware somewhere in that engine's electrical system, I'd be deeply, deeply suspicious of it right now.

www.flightglobal.com...

a reply to: anzha

It's hardware it looks like. They haven't figured out exactly why yet, but it's the generator. Possibly a failure of the brush system or something.

Had a lot of reports of a lot of drones going down, especially in Southwestern Afghanistan. Apparently they don't really have the kind of maintenance track record other airframes do.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: anzha

It's hardware it looks like. They haven't figured out exactly why yet, but it's the generator. Possibly a failure of the brush system or something.

Oddly enough, it sounds too much like the sabotage of the Iranian centrifuges.

Have they considered a cyber-attack?

a reply to: mbkennel

No, they're pretty much looking straight hardware at this point. The aircraft that have the new generator haven't had a single problem similar to this.