Italy Reaps Drones In $738m Deal

Italy is seeking to acquire six MQ-9 Reaper drones and associated systems in a $738 million deal.

The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale, which is for the Block 5 variant of the unmanned combat aerial vehicle, which is produced by General Atomics. The Block 5 drones are an upgraded version of the original design with increased electrical power, improved communications, automatic landing, bigger payloads and enhanced weapons.

They were first used in combat in mid-2017 cas part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

A statement from the the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) noted Italy already has MQ-9 Block 5 aircraft with strike capabilities in its inventory and added that the proposed new sale would "improve Italy’s capability to meet current and future threats... advancing U.S. and NATO policy goals of security and interoperability."

The DSCA has delivered the required certification notifying Congress of the possible sale. As well as the drones themselves, the deal would see Italy acquire three Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)  Mobile Ground Control Stations (MGCS); 12 AN/DAS-4 Multi-spectral Target Systems; nine LYNX AN/APY-8 Block 20A Synthetic Aperture Radars with Maritime Wide Area Surveillance (MWAS) capability; and one (1) Embedded Global Positioning & Inertial Navigation System (EGI)

Read the full details on the DSCA website