Robot model
MQ-9 Reaper
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the privately held San Diego incumbent behind the Predator lineage, makes the MQ-9 Reaper, the canonical legacy…
- Manufacturer
- General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
- Form factor
- aerial
- Maturity
- production
- Lifecycle
- active
- Deployments
- 4
Appears inMilitary & defense drones
Overview
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the privately held San Diego incumbent behind the Predator lineage, makes the MQ-9 Reaper, the canonical legacy medium-altitude long-endurance remotely-piloted aircraft against which the AI-first new-defense wave is contrasted. The MQ-9A first flew on February 2, 2001 and entered service in May 2007; it is flown by a crew of a pilot, a sensor operator, and a mission-intelligence coordinator at a ground control station, with roughly thirty hours of ISR endurance, a 3,800-pound payload, and Hellfire missiles and laser- and GPS-guided bombs. As of 2026 some 575 have been built, with the US Air Force operating about 158 active plus 24 Air National Guard aircraft at the end of fiscal 2025 and the Marine Corps receiving its final MQ-9A in June 2025, alongside operators including the UK, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Critically and honestly, the Reaper is remotely piloted, not autonomous: humans retain flight control and all weapons decisions, with automatic takeoff, landing, and threat-tracking as assistance features, and the newer Quadratix software introduced in March 2025 adds AI and autonomy for single-operator multi-sensor ISR on the MQ-9B but remains operator-controlled rather than an autonomous kill chain, so the word drone should not imply AI-autonomy here. A lifecycle nuance worth recording: the MQ-9A production line closed in 2025 after the Air Force declined further buys, while the longer-endurance MQ-9B SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian, operated by the UK as Protector RG Mk1 and contracted to Taiwan and Germany, are the active in-production successor, so this single record spans a mature, sunsetting platform and its in-production replacement.
Verified vs. claimed
- Maturity stage
- production(Full-scale production deployment with repeat customers.)
- Verified deployments
- 4 deployments on file
- Sources on file
- 4 sources, view all
Key facts
Payload
Runtime
Autonomy level
Production target
Specs
Notes
Specs
Form Factor
Data & sources
Press releases
1
Web sources
3
4 sources backing this record.View all →
Availability and pricing
- Availability
- Not sold (internal use)
- Price
- $20M to $32M (actual sale price)as of 2024-01-01
- Units in field
- Not disclosed
- Sales model
- Not disclosed
- Lead time
- Not disclosed
Pricing
One-time purchase
$20,000,000 - $32,000,000 USDactual sale priceas of 2024-01-01
Source: actual-sale-price pricing via af.mil (Depth sourcing 2026-07-08)
Price status: actual-sale-price = real published price at time of sale; manufacturer-target = vendor target, not yet realized; analyst-estimate = third-party projection, not a vendor figure; not-announced = no price on record.
Prices verified as of Jan 1, 2024
Deployments (4)
- MQ-9 Reaper at United Statesoperational
U.S.
- MQ-9 Reaper at Poway, California, USAoperational
GA-ASI headquarters and primary manufacturing facility for MQ-9 Reaper production.
- MQ-9 Reaper at Globaloperational
General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper deployed with US Air Force, Marine Corps, and 10+ allied nations.
- MQ-9 Reaper at Creech Air Force Baseoperational
US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper operations from Creech AFB, Nevada, with remote split operations worldwide.
MQ-9 Reaper on the deployment map
Where MQ-9 Reaper is verified operating. Explore the deployment map by place and type.
- delivery and inspection drones in United States →
- delivery and inspection drones in California →
- delivery and inspection drones in Ukraine (combat zones) →
- delivery and inspection drones in Nevada →
- delivery and inspection drones in United Kingdom →
- delivery and inspection drones in China →
- The global deployment map →
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Superseded updatedJul 11, 2026
general-atomics-parent-mq-9-reaper -> ga-mq-9-reaper
- Superseded updatedJul 11, 2026
mq-9-reaper -> ga-mq-9-reaper
- Verified media addedVerifiedJun 11, 2026
MQ-9B SkyGuardian airborne early warning missions
- Verified media addedVerifiedJun 5, 2026
General Atomics MQ-9B SeaGuardian
- Record createdJun 3, 2026
Added to the verified registry
Previous generations
- MQ-9 Reapersuperseded
- MQ-9 Reapersuperseded
The historical entries remain on the registry for reference; current coverage tracks this generation.
Manufacturer-attributed media (1)
Manufacturer-supplied media at the model level. Not tied to an independently verified named-site deployment. Verification posture is product-showcase from the maker, distinct from the deployment-verified evidence in the section above.
General Atomics Aeronautical footage of the MQ-9B SeaGuardian, a Reaper-family maritime ISR variant. A remotely-piloted aircraft (the maker's own term is 'RPA'), not autonomous.
Safety record
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Incidents affecting MQ-9 Reaper (1)
Includes incidents linked directly to this model or to deployments of it. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Sources (4)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper
- https://www.airandspaceforces.com/abrupt-end-to-mq-9-production-surprises-general-atomics/
- https://www.ga-asi.com/remotely-piloted-aircraft/mq-9b-skyguardian
- https://www.defenseadvancement.com/feature/quadratix-unified-software-ecosystem-from-general-atomics/
Compare MQ-9 Reaper
Common questions
- What is MQ-9 Reaper?
- General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the privately held San Diego incumbent behind the Predator lineage, makes the MQ-9 Reaper, the canonical legacy medium-altitude long-endurance remotely-piloted aircraft against which the AI-first new-defense wave is contrasted. The MQ-9A first flew on February 2, 2001 and entered service in May 2007; it is flown by a crew of a pilot, a sensor operator, and a mission-intelligence coordinator at a ground control station, with roughly thirty hours of ISR endurance, a 3,800-pound payload, and Hellfire missiles and laser- and GPS-guided bombs. As of 2026 some 575 have been built, with the US Air Force operating about 158 active plus 24 Air National Guard aircraft at the end of fiscal 2025 and the Marine Corps receiving its final MQ-9A in June 2025, alongside operators including the UK, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Critically and honestly, the Reaper is remotely piloted, not autonomous: humans retain flight control and all weapons decisions, with automatic takeoff, landing, and threat-tracking as assistance features, and the newer Quadratix software introduced in March 2025 adds AI and autonomy for single-operator multi-sensor ISR on the MQ-9B but remains operator-controlled rather than an autonomous kill chain, so the word drone should not imply AI-autonomy here. A lifecycle nuance worth recording: the MQ-9A production line closed in 2025 after the Air Force declined further buys, while the longer-endurance MQ-9B SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian, operated by the UK as Protector RG Mk1 and contracted to Taiwan and Germany, are the active in-production successor, so this single record spans a mature, sunsetting platform and its in-production replacement.
- How much does MQ-9 Reaper cost?
- MQ-9 Reaper is listed at $20,000,000 to $32,000,000 on the DEPLOY registry. This is an actual sale price on record.
- Is MQ-9 Reaper actually deployed in the real world?
- Yes. MQ-9 Reaper is independently verified in real-world operation on the DEPLOY registry, confirmed at named deployment sites with primary sources: not a concept, render, or demo-only.
- Who makes MQ-9 Reaper?
- MQ-9 Reaper is made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, based in Poway, California, USA, founded in 1993.
- Where is MQ-9 Reaper deployed?
- 4 verified deployments of MQ-9 Reaper are on the DEPLOY registry, including at United States, Poway, California, USA, Global.
- Can you buy MQ-9 Reaper?
- MQ-9 Reaper is available for purchase - a real sale price is on record (see the pricing section for the figure and its source).
- What are alternatives to MQ-9 Reaper?
- On the DEPLOY registry, comparable aerial robots to MQ-9 Reaper include Skydio X10, Wing Delivery Aircraft, Matternet M2, Stream C.
- How does MQ-9 Reaper compare to Skydio X10?
- MQ-9 Reaper and Skydio X10 (Skydio · 5 deployments) are both aerial robots on the DEPLOY registry. MQ-9 Reaper has 4 verified deployments on record. Compare both records for specs, safety, deployments, and verified-vs-claimed autonomy.
- Is MQ-9 Reaper a top aerial?
- On DEPLOY's intelligence score, which blends verified deployments, safety, adoption, media, and IP signals, MQ-9 Reaper ranks in roughly the top 5% of aerial models tracked by the registry.
- What is MQ-9 Reaper's maturity stage?
- MQ-9 Reaper is at the production stage on the DEPLOY maturity ladder (research, prototype, pilot, commercial, production). Production stage means high-volume manufacture and commercial-scale deployments are sustained.
- Is MQ-9 Reaper safe?
- MQ-9 Reaper has 1 active incident on record in the DEPLOY registry. 1 incident on record (1 critical). Most recent: Mar 2023. Retracted incidents are excluded from this count.
Methodology: Verified · 4 sources (1 primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-12
Verification posture
Verified
High confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-07-12
Maturity + lifecycle
Maturity stage: production
Lifecycle: active
Architectural position
Cohort: aerial
Sources by quality tier
- 2
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
- 1
- knowledge-base
- Knowledge base
- 1
- primary-company-ir
- Company IR disclosure
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for MQ-9 Reaper.Recent coverage
MQ-9 Reaper in third-party press
Attention vs reality over time
Media mentions per month (area) against verified deployment events (dots). A press spike over a flat deployment line is the hype gap, drawn over time.
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning MQ-9 Reaper from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Pentagon to explore cheaper replacements for the MQ-9 Reaper
The Massed Modular Aircraft project aims to develop a drone that can operate in such large numbers that it can absorb losses and still overwhelm defenses.
Pentagon to explore cheaper replacements for the MQ-9 Reaper
The Massed Modular Aircraft project aims to develop a drone that can operate in such large numbers that it can absorb losses and still overwhelm defenses.
US Air Force Awards GA-ASI Production Contract for FQ-42A CCA
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems received a production contract from the US Air Force for FQ-42A CCA drone wingman program. Awarded alongside Anduril for the first CCA…
Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to build first operational CCA drones
The U.S. Air Force selected Anduril and General Atomics for CCA production. Anduril produces FQ-42A, General Atomics FQ-44A. Shield AI and Collins also received autonomy software…
Air Force picks General Atomics, Anduril to build first CCA loyal wingman drones
US Air Force selected General Atomics and Anduril to build first Collaborative Combat Aircraft loyal wingman drones. Software vendors still competing.
US Air Force Awards GA-ASI Production Contract for FQ-42A CCA
US Air Force awarded General Atomics Aeronautical Systems production contract for FQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft.
MQ-9 Next: the U.S. Air Force defines new requirements to replace the Reaper - Meta-Defense
<a…
Air Force MQ-9 downs aerial targets with cheap air-to-air missiles - Defense One
<a…
The Iran war took a toll on the Air Force’s Reaper fleet - Task & Purpose
<a…
General Atomics' Dark Merlin Drone Crashes During CCA Flight Test
General Atomics' CCA drone prototype (Dark Merlin) crashed following a mishap during flight test. Part of USAF Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
General Atomics expands MQ-9 Reaper drones' role with cruise missiles - Interesting Engineering
<a…
JUST IN: Air Force Acquiring Autonomous, FAA-Certifiable Cargo Plane - National Defense Magazine
<a…
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /models/ga-mq-9-reaper.md
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/models/363e1892-0df2-4d0e-aae9-fd19e835d78f
- Revision history: /models/ga-mq-9-reaper/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Buyer-facing pricing: deploy.report/price/ga-mq-9-reaper
Video
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At General Atomics, we don't just design our products, we produce them. From concept to final product we see the process through from end-to-end. #generalatom
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From start to finish, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems engineers play a pivotal role in the creation and sustainment of the world’s most cutting-edge remote
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General Atomics, GA-ASI Unmanned Aircraft Systems. #shorts General Atomics, GA-ASI #SHORTS #shorts #youtubeshorts #YouTubeshorts
[video: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) ]
Reality vs attention
MQ-9 Reaper draws attention at the 95th percentile but verifies reality at the 97th percentile among aerial robots. Hype Gap -2, 38th widest among aerial robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Strong recent media coverage and press activity. Thin deployment record; scale validation still in progress.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Jul 18, 2026