Netherlands to double MQ-9A order to eight aircraft

BELFAST — The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) has agreed to double an order for four MQ-9A Reaper medium altitude unmanned aerial vehicles to eight aircraft, according to manufacturer General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI).

The US firm revealed the move in a company statement on Monday, although the plan to order eight aircraft was previously disclosed in a national defense paper, published by the Netherlands Ministry of Defense in June 2022.

GA-ASI said that the first four MQ-9A Block 5 Reapers and associated ground control stations were delivered to the RNLAF in 2022. The aircraft are all due to be operated out of Leeuwarden Air Base, which also hosts Dutch F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets. Only one of the four MQ-9A drones is currently based at the facility for training purposes with the 306th Squadron, while the other three continue to cover missions out of Curacao, a Dutch Caribbean island, according to an August 15 RNLAF social media post.

“We are doubling the number of MQ-9A Reapers so we can increase our maritime and overland intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance (ISR) capacity,” Lt. Col. Jan Ruedisueli, commander of 306 Squadron, said in the GA-ASI statement. “The MQ-9As will receive external pods for Electronic Intelligence, a communications relay, a Maritime Radar, and also be armed in the future.”

The aircraft are all unarmed currently, but Christophe van der Maat, Netherlands state secretary of defense, informed the House of Representatives by letter in May 2023 that weapons will be procured for the drones.

“When the Ministry of Defense started the project for the MQ-9 Reaper in 2011 there was no need to arm the aircraft,” the MoD said in May. “However, the threat picture has changed considerably since then. The aircraft must now be able to protect the safety of its own troops.”

The first batch of four aircraft will need to be upgraded so they can be fitted with GBU-12 guided bombs and AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles. The additional aircraft are “already technically prepared for that,” added the MoD. The armaments will be ready for an initial deployment in 2025 and fully deployable in 2028, according to the MoD.

The weapons acquisition falls under a foreign military sale with the US government and has an estimated value between $100 and $250 million.

Capabilities of the MQ-9A include endurance over 27 hours, 1746 kilogram payload capacity, 240 Knots True Air Speed (KTAS) and a 50,000ft operational ceiling, according to GA-ASI figures.