Amélie (, , ) is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story of a shy, introverted and quirky waitress, played by Audrey Tautou, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better while dealing with her own isolation. The film features an ensemble cast of supporting roles, including Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta, Serge Merlin, Jamel Debbouze, Claire Maurier, Clotilde Mollet, Isabelle Nanty, Dominique Pinon, Artus de Penguern, Yolande Moreau, Urbain Cancelier, and Maurice Bénichou.

Amélie was released theatrically in France on 25 April 2001 by UGC-Fox Distribution and in Germany on 16 August 2001 by Prokino Filmverleih. The film received widespread critical acclaim, with major praise for Tautou's performance, the cinematography, production design, sound design, editing, musical score and writing. Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Awards, four César Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, and two British Academy Film Awards, including Best Original Screenplay. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay. The film was an enormous commercial success, grossing $174.2 million worldwide against a budget of $10 million, and is one of the biggest international successes for a French film. Amélie is now regarded as a cult classic, one of the best films of the 2000s and the 21st century, and one of the greatest and most influential French films of all time, as well as one of the best romantic comedy films ever made.

Plot
Amélie Poulain is born in 1974 and brought up by eccentric parents who – incorrectly believing that she has a heart defect – decide to home-school her. To cope with her loneliness, Amélie develops an active imagination and a mischievous personality. When Amélie is six, her mother, Amandine, is killed when a suicidal Canadian tourist jumps from the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris and lands on her. As a result, her father, Raphaël, withdraws more and more from society. Amélie leaves home at the age of 18 and becomes a waitress at the Café des 2 Moulins in Montmartre, which is staffed and frequented by a collection of eccentrics. She is single and lets her imagination roam freely, finding contentment in simple pleasures like dipping her hand into grain sacks, cracking crème brûlée with a spoon, and skipping stones along the Canal Saint-Martin.

On 31 August 1997, startled by the news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Amélie drops a plastic perfume-stopper, which dislodges a wall tile and accidentally reveals an old metal box which contains childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades earlier. Amélie resolves to track down the boy and return the box to him. She promises herself that if it makes him happy, she will devote her life to bringing happiness to others.

After asking the apartment's concierge and several old tenants about the boy's identity, Amélie meets her reclusive neighbour, Raymond Dufayel, an artist with brittle bone disease who replicates Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 1881 painting Luncheon of the Boating Party every year. He recalls the boy's name as "Bretodeau". Amélie finds the man, Dominique Bretodeau, and surreptitiously gives him the box. Moved to tears by the discovery and the memories it holds, Bretodeau resolves to reconcile with his estranged daughter and the grandson he has never met. Amélie happily embarks on her new mission.

Amélie secretly executes complex schemes that positively affect the lives of those around her. She escorts a blind man to the Métro station while giving him a rich description of the street scenes he passes. She persuades her father to follow his dream of touring the world by stealing his garden gnome and having a flight attendant friend mail pictures of it posing with landmarks from all over the world. She starts a romance between her hypochondriacal co-worker Georgette and Joseph, a patron of the cafe. She convinces Madeleine Wallace, the concierge of her block of flats, that the husband who abandoned her had sent her a final conciliatory love letter just before his accidental death years before. She plays practical jokes on Collignon, the nasty greengrocer. Mentally exhausted, Collignon no longer abuses his meek, good-natured assistant Lucien. A delighted Lucien subsequently takes charge at the grocery stand.

Mr. Dufayel, having observed Amélie, begins a conversation with her about his painting. Although he has copied the same Renoir painting 20 times, he has never quite captured the look of the girl drinking a glass of water. They discuss the meaning of this character, and over several conversations, Amélie begins projecting her loneliness onto the image. Dufayel recognizes this and uses the girl in the painting to push Amélie to examine her attraction to a quirky young man, Nino Quincampoix, who collects the discarded photographs of strangers from passport photo booths. When Amélie bumps into Nino a second time, she realizes she is falling in love with him. He accidentally drops a photo album in the street. Amélie retrieves it.

Amélie plays a cat-and-mouse game with Nino around Paris before returning his treasured album anonymously. After arranging a meeting at the 2 Moulins, Amélie panics and tries to deny her identity. Her co-worker, Gina, concerned for Amélie's well-being, screens Nino for her; Joseph's comment about this misleads Amélie to believe she has lost Nino to Gina. It takes Dufayel's insight to give her the courage to pursue Nino, resulting in a romantic night together and the beginning of a relationship. The film ends as Amélie experiences a moment of happiness she has found for herself.

Cast

Production

In his DVD commentary, Jeunet explains that he originally wrote the role of Amélie for the English actress Emily Watson. In that first draft, Amélie's father was an Englishman living in London. However, Watson's French was not strong, and when she became unavailable to shoot the film, owing to a conflict with the filming of Gosford Park (2001), Jeunet rewrote the screenplay for a French actress. Audrey Tautou was the first actress he auditioned having seen her on the poster for the 1999 film Venus Beauty Institute.

Filming took place mainly in Paris. The Café des 2 Moulins (15 Rue Lepic, Montmartre, Paris) where Amélie works is a real place.

The filmmakers made use of computer-generated imagery (including computer animation), and a digital intermediate. The studio scenes were filmed in the MMC Studios Coloneum in Cologne (Germany). The film shares many of the themes in its plot with the second half of the 1994 film Chungking Express.

Release

The film was released in France, Belgium, and French-speaking western Switzerland in April 2001, with subsequent screenings at various film festivals followed by releases around the world. It received limited releases in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australasia later in 2001.

Cannes Film Festival selector Gilles Jacob described Amélie as "uninteresting", and therefore it was not screened at the festival, although the version he viewed was an early cut without music. The absence of Amélie at the festival caused something of a controversy because of the warm welcome by the French media and audience in contrast with the reaction of the selector. David Martin-Jones, in an article in Senses of Cinema, stated that the film "[wears] its national [French] identity on its sleeve" and that this attracted both audiences of mainstream films and those of arthouse ones.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 89% approval rating based on 186 reviews, with an average rating of 8.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The feel-good Amélie is a lively, fanciful charmer, showcasing Audrey Tautou as its delightful heroine." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 69 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".

Alan Morrison from Empire Online gave Amélie five stars and called it "one of the year's best, with crossover potential along the lines of Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) and Il Postino (1994). Given its quirky heart, it might well surpass them all". Paul Tatara of CNN praised Amélies playful nature. In his review, he wrote, "Its whimsical, free-ranging nature is often enchanting; the first hour, in particular, is brimming with amiable, sardonic laughs".

The film was attacked by critic Serge Kaganski of Les Inrockuptibles for an unrealistic and picturesque vision of a bygone French society with few ethnic minorities. Jeunet dismissed the criticism by pointing out that the photo collection contains pictures of people from numerous ethnic backgrounds, and that Jamel Debbouze, who plays Lucien, is of Moroccan descent.

Box office
The film opened on 432 screens in France and grossed 43.2 million French Franc ($6.2 million) in its opening week, placing it at number one. It stayed in the top 10 for 22 weeks. It was the highest-grossing film in France for the year with a gross of $41 million.

Accolades

Amélie was selected by The New York Times as one of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made". The film placed No. 2 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema". Paste magazine ranked it second on its list of the 50 Best Movies of the Decade (2000–2009). In August 2016, BBC Magazine conducted a poll on the 21st century's 100 greatest films so far, with Amélie ranking at number 87.

Entertainment Weekly named the film poster one of the best on its list of the top 25 film posters in the past 25 years. It also named Amélie setting up a wild goose chase for her beloved Nino all through Paris as No. 9 on its list of top 25 Romantic Gestures. In 2010, an online public poll by the American Cinematographer – the house journal of the American Society of Cinematographers – named Amélie the best shot film of the decade.

Amelie is rated 37 among the 50 Greatest Romantic Comedies of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to Amélie was composed by Yann Tiersen.

Musical adaptation

On 23 August 2013, composer Dan Messe, one of the founders and members of the band Hem, confirmed speculation that he would be writing the score for a musical adaptation of Amélie, collaborating with Craig Lucas and Nathan Tysen. Messe also confirmed he would be composing all original music for the show and not using the Yann Tiersen score. The musical adaptation premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in August 2015. It opened on Broadway in March 2017 and closed in May 2017. The production started its pre-Broadway engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in December 2016, with Phillipa Soo in the title role. A London production opened in 2020, with Australian, German, Dutch, and Finnish productions set to open or resume pending the cessation of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jeunet has distanced himself from the musical due to his distaste for the artform, saying he only sold the rights to raise funds for children's charity "Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque".

Home media

The film has no overall worldwide distributor, but Blu-ray Discs have been released in Canada and Australia. The first release occurred in Canada in September 2008 by TVA Films. This version did not contain any English subtitles and received criticisms regarding picture quality. In November 2009, an Australian release occurred. This time the version contained English subtitles and features no region coding. Momentum Pictures released a Blu-ray in the UK on 17 October 2011. The film is also available in HD on iTunes and other digital download services.

In the United Kingdom, it was 2013's tenth best-selling foreign-language film on physical home video formats, and the year's third best-selling French film (below The Intouchables and Rust and Bone).

Interpretation
Film interpretation commonly revolves around the color palette being red and green heavy.

Legacy
For the 2007 television show Pushing Daisies, a "quirky fairy tale", American Broadcasting Company (ABC) sought an Amélie feel, with the same chords of "whimsy and spirit and magic". Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller said Amélie is his favorite film. "All the things I love are represented in that movie", he said. "It's a movie that will make me cry based on kindness as opposed to sadness". The New York Times review of Pushing Daisies reported "the Amélie influence on Pushing Daisies is everywhere".

A species of frog was named Cochranella amelie. The scientist who named it said: "This new species of glass frog is for Amélie, protagonist of the extraordinary movie Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain; a film where little details play an important role in the achievement of joie de vivre; like the important role that glass frogs and all amphibians and reptiles play in the health of our planet". The species was described in the scientific journal Zootaxa in an article entitled "An enigmatic new species of Glassfrog (Amphibia: Anura: Centrolenidae) from the Amazonian Andean slopes of Ecuador".

See also
 Cinema of France
 List of French language films
 List of submissions to the 74th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
 List of French submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

External links

2001 films
2001 romantic comedy films
2000s French films
2000s French-language films
2000s German films
BAFTA winners (films)
Best Film César Award winners
Best Film Lumières Award winners
Best Foreign Film Guldbagge Award winners
Crystal Globe winners
Czech Lion Awards winners (films)
European Film Awards winners (films)
Films about women in France
Films directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Films featuring a Best Actress Lumières Award-winning performance
Films scored by Yann Tiersen
Films set in 1973
Films set in 1997
Films set in Paris
Films shot in Paris
Films whose director won the Best Director César Award
Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award
Films with live action and animation
France 3 Cinéma films
French romantic comedy films
French-language German films
German romantic comedy films
Golden Eagle Award (Russia) for Best Foreign Language Film winners
Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film winners
Magic realism films
Metafictional works
Montmartre
Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award winners
UGC films

Amélie


Mostafa Madani () is an Iranian communist politician and one of the senior members of the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas.

Political career
Madani joined Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas in the 1970s. As of 1979, he was considered a leading figure in the group, and held position as a member of both executive and central committees. He unsuccessfully ran for an Assembly of Experts for Constitution seat from Tehran constituency, garnering 100,894 votes. He and Farrokh Negahdar wanted to convince Mohammad Beheshti of the Islamic Republican Party to form an anti-imperialist front, a request that was not accepted. He became critical of the new regime, attacking it for being undemocratic and reactionary while Negahdar maintained that it was on the right track.

After the 1980 schism in the organization, Madani was initially with the majority faction but following disagreements with the leadership, he led a short-lived offshoot that split from the majority and was merged into the minority faction in 1982. In 1985, he broke away from the faction along with Hammad Sheybani and started a new group.

References

Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas members
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people

Mostafa Madani


The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the United States Air Force (USAF). The MQ-9 and other UAVs are referred to as Remotely Piloted Vehicles/Aircraft (RPV/RPA) by the USAF to indicate ground control by humans.

The MQ-9 is a larger, heavier, more capable aircraft than the earlier General Atomics MQ-1 Predator and can be controlled by the same ground systems.  The Reaper has a 950-shaft-horsepower (712 kW) turboprop engine (compared to the Predator's  piston engine). The greater power allows the Reaper to carry 15 times more ordnance payload and cruise at about three times the speed of the MQ-1.

The aircraft is monitored and controlled by aircrew in the Ground Control Station (GCS), including weapons employment. The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance. In 2006, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force General T. Michael Moseley said: "We've moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles before Operation Iraqi Freedom, to a true hunter-killer role with the Reaper."

The USAF operated over 300 MQ-9 Reapers as of May 2021. Several MQ-9 aircraft had been retrofitted with equipment upgrades to improve performance in "high-end combat situations", and all new MQ-9s would have those upgrades. 2035 is the projected end of the service life of the MQ-9 fleet. The average unit cost of an MQ-9 is estimated at $ million  The Reaper is also used by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the militaries of several other countries. The MQ-9A has been further developed into the MQ-9B, which (based on mission and payload) are referred to by General Atomics as SkyGuardian or SeaGuardian.

Development

Origins
The General Atomics "Predator B-001", a proof-of-concept aircraft, first flew on 2 February 2001. Abraham Karem is the designer of the Predator. The B-001 was powered by an AlliedSignal Garrett TPE331-10T turboprop engine with . It had an airframe that was based on the standard Predator airframe, except with an enlarged fuselage and wings lengthened from  to . The B-001 had a speed of  and could carry a payload of  to an altitude of  with an endurance of 30 hours.

The company refined the design, taking it in two separate directions. The first was a jet-powered version; "Predator B-002" was fitted with a Williams FJ44-2A turbofan engine with  thrust. It had payload capacity of , a ceiling of  and endurance of 12 hours. The USAF ordered two aircraft for evaluation, delivered in 2007. The two prototype airframes B-001 and B-002 have been retired to the USAF museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. B-002 was originally equipped with the FJ-44 engine but it was removed and a TPE-331-10T was installed so that the USAF could take delivery of two aircraft in the same configuration.

The second direction the design took was the "Predator B-003", referred to by GA as the "Altair", which has a new airframe with an  wingspan and a takeoff weight of approximately . Like the Predator B-001, it is powered by a TPE-331-10YGD turboprop. This variant has a payload capacity of , a maximum ceiling of , and an endurance of 36 hours.

In October 2001, the USAF signed a contract for an initial pair of Predator Bs (001 and 002) for evaluation. Designated YMQ-9s due to their prototype role, they were delivered in 2002. The USAF referred to it as "Predator B" until it was renamed "Reaper". The USAF aimed for the Predator B to provide an improved "deadly persistence" capability, flying over a combat area night-and-day waiting for a target to present itself, complementing piloted attack aircraft, typically used to drop larger quantities of ordnance on a target, while a cheaper RPV can operate almost continuously using ground controllers working in shifts, but carrying less ordnance.

Operation

MQ-9 Reaper crews (pilots and sensor operators), stationed at bases such as Creech Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, Nevada, can hunt for targets and observe terrain using multiple sensors, including a thermographic camera. One claim was that the onboard camera is able to read a license plate from  away. An operator's command takes 1.2 seconds to reach the drone via a satellite link.

The MQ-9 is fitted with six stores pylons. The inner stores pylons can carry a maximum of  each and allow carriage of external fuel tanks. The mid-wing stores pylons can carry a maximum of  each, while the outer stores pylons can carry a maximum of  each. An MQ-9 with two  external fuel tanks and  of munitions has an endurance of 42 hours. The Reaper has an endurance of 14 hours when fully loaded with munitions.

The MQ-9 carries a variety of weapons including the GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb, the AGM-114 Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles, the AIM-9 Sidewinder, and the GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). Tests are underway to allow for the addition of the AIM-92 Stinger air-to-air missile.

By October 2007, the USAF owned nine Reapers, and by December 2010 had 57 with plans to buy another 272, for a total of 329 Reapers. Critics have stated that the USAF's insistence on qualified pilots flying RPVs is a bottleneck to expanding deployment. USAF Major General William Rew stated on 5 August 2008, "For the way we fly them right now"—fully integrated into air operations and often flying missions alongside manned aircraft—"we want pilots to fly them." This reportedly has exacerbated losses of USAF aircraft in comparison with US Army operations. In March 2011, U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated that, while manned aircraft are needed, the USAF must recognize "the enormous strategic and cultural implications of the vast expansion in remotely piloted vehicles..." and stated that as the service buys manned fighters and bombers, it must give equal weight to unmanned drones and "the service's important role in the cyber and space domains."

 the USAF had taken delivery of 287 out of 366 MQ-9 Reapers on contract with General Atomics. The total program quantity is set at 433, including Foreign Military Sales.

In 2013, the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) sought the ability to pack up an MQ-9 in less than eight hours, fly it anywhere in the world aboard a C-17 Globemaster III, and then have it ready to fly in another eight hours to support special operations teams at places with no infrastructure. MQ-1 and MQ-9 drones must fly aboard cargo aircraft to travel long distances as they lack the refueling technology or speed to travel themselves; the C-17 is large enough to carry the aircraft and support systems and can land on short runways. Pilots traveling with the Reaper will use the ground control station to launch and land the aircraft, while most of the flying will be done by US-based pilots.

Testbed and upgrades
In November 2012, Raytheon completed ground verification tests for the ADM-160 MALD and MALD-J for integration onto the Reaper for an unmanned suppression of enemy air defenses capability. On 12 April 2013, a company-owned MQ-9 equipped with a jamming pod and digital receiver/exciter successfully demonstrated its electronic warfare capability at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Yuma, performing its mission in coordination with over 20 participating aircraft. A second electronic warfare test, fitted with the Northrop Grumman Pandora EW System, was conducted on 22 October 2013 with other unmanned aircraft and Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowlers, showing effectiveness in a multi-node approach against a more capable IADS.

In 2011, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) reported its interest in using the Reaper and its MTS-B sensor to provide firing quality data for early interception of ballistic missile launches. The MDA is exploring concepts to use the UAV's EO/IR sensor to achieve "launch-on-remote" capabilities with missile interceptors before detection by Aegis radars.  At least two aircraft would be needed to triangulate a target to provide high-fidelity data. The MTS-B includes short and mid-wave IR bands, optimal for tracking launch and rocket burn.

In 2013, the MDA terminated plans to build a follow-on to the two orbiting Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellites due to near-term costs, opting to continue testing the Reaper for ballistic missile target discrimination. The MDA planned to test the improved MTS-C sensor, which adds a long-wave IR detector optimized for tracking cold bodies such as missiles and warheads after booster burnout, or plumes and exhaust. The goal is to use data from multiple high-flying UAVs to provide an offboard cue to launch an SM-3 missile from an Aegis ship. Two Reapers demonstrated their ability to track ballistic missiles using their MTS-B EO/IR turret during a test in late June 2016.

In June 2015, a study by the USAF's Scientific Advisory Board identified several improvements for operating the Reaper in contested airspace; adding readily available sensors, weapons, and threat detection and countermeasures could increase situational awareness and enable riskier deployments. Suggestions included a radar warning receiver (RWR) to know when it's being targeted, air-to-air and miniature air-to-ground weapons, manned-unmanned teaming, multi-UAV control, automatic take-offs and landings, and precision navigation and timing systems to fly in GPS-denied areas. Another idea was redesigned ground control stations with user-friendly video game-like controllers and touchscreen maps to access data without overwhelming operators.

In October 2015, Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for ISR Robert Otto suggested redesigning the MQ-9's GCS to be operated by one person for most missions rather than two (to fly and work the sensors) to simplify operations and reduce manpower requirements by hundreds of sensor operators. Introducing an auto-land capability would also reduce the Reaper's manpower requirements to staff launch and recovery teams. Automatic take-off and landing capabilities are already present in the RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-1C Gray Eagle, and are planned to be provided to the MQ-9 in 2017.  The Air Force requires the manually loaded Reaper to operate from a runway at least  long, but automated take-offs and landings would enable it to operate from a  runway.

In April 2017, an MQ-9 Block 5 flew with a Raytheon ALR-69A RWR in its payload pod to demonstrate the aircraft's ability to conduct missions in the proximity of threat radars and air defenses, the first time this capability was demonstrated on a remotely piloted aircraft. In September 2020, a Reaper was flown carrying two Hellfire missiles on each of the stations previously reserved for 500 lb bombs or fuel tanks. A software upgrade doubled the aircraft's capacity to eight missiles.

Pentagon wants to upgrade MQ-9 Reaper with directed-energy weapons such as low-powered laser and high-powered microwave beams. A high-field optical module to act on the human nervous system is also under consideration.

In September 2020, GA-ASI conducted captive carry tests of the Sparrowhawk small UAS on the MQ-9, with the Reaper itself acting as a drone mothership. The MQ-9B Sky Guardian will be able to carry up to four Sparrowhawks upon the sUAS's entry to service.

Design

A typical MQ-9 system consists of multiple aircraft, ground control station, communications equipment, maintenance spares, and personnel. A military flight crew includes a pilot, sensor operator, and Mission Intelligence Coordinator. The aircraft is powered by a  turboprop, with a maximum speed of about  and a cruising speed of .

With a  wingspan, and a maximum payload of , the MQ-9 can be armed with a variety of weaponry, including Hellfire missiles and  laser-guided bomb units. Its endurance is 30 hours when conducting ISR missions, which decreases to 23 hours if it is carrying a full weapons load. The Reaper has a range of  and an operational altitude of , which makes it especially useful for long-term loitering operations, both for surveillance and support of ground troops.

The Predator and Reaper were designed for military operations and not intended to operate among crowded airline traffic. The aircraft typically lack systems capable of complying with FAA See-And-Avoid regulations. In 2005, requests were made for MQ-9s to be used in search and rescue operations following Hurricane Katrina but, as there was no FAA authorization in place at the time, it was not used. On 18 May 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a certificate of authorization allowing MQ-1 and MQ-9 UAVs to fly in U.S. civil airspace to search for survivors of disasters.

An MQ-9 can adopt various mission kits and combinations of weapons and sensors payloads to meet combat requirements. Its Raytheon AN/AAS-52 multi-spectral targeting sensor suite includes a color/monochrome daylight TV, infrared, and image-intensified TV with laser rangefinder/laser designator to designate targets for laser guided munitions. The aircraft is also equipped with the Lynx Multi-mode Radar that contains synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can operate in both spotlight and strip modes, and ground moving target indication (GMTI) with Dismount Moving Target Indicator (DMTI) and Maritime Wide-Area Search (MWAS) capabilities.

The Reaper was used as a test bed for Gorgon Stare, a wide-area surveillance sensor system. Increment 1 of the system was first fielded in March 2011 on the Reaper and could cover an area of ; increment 2, incorporating ARGUS-IS and expanding the coverage area to , achieved initial operating capability (IOC) in early 2014. The system has 368 cameras capable of capturing five million pixels each to create an image of about 1.8 billion pixels; video is collected at 12 frames per second, producing several terabytes of data per minute.

In January 2012, General Atomics released a new trailing arm design for the Reaper's main landing gear. Benefits include an over 30% increase in landing weight capacity, a 12% increase in gross takeoff weight (from  to ), a maintenance-free shock absorber (eliminating the need for nitrogen pressurization), a fully rejected takeoff brake system, and provisions for automatic takeoff and landing capability and Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) field upgrades. In April 2012, General Atomics announced possible upgrades to USAF Reapers, including two extra  fuel pods under the wings to increase endurance to 37 hours. The wingspan can also be increased to , increasing endurance to 42 hours.

The USAF has bought 38 Reaper Extended Range (ER) versions, carrying external fuel tanks (which don't affect weapon capacity), the heavy-weight landing gear, a four-bladed propeller, a new fuel management system which ensures fuel and thermal balance among external tank, wing, and fuselage fuel sources, and an alcohol-water injection (AWI) system to shorten required runway takeoff length. These features increase endurance from 27 to 33–35 hours, while the company is still pitching the lengthened wing option. The Reaper ER first flew operationally in August 2015.

The aircraft also has the sensor ball replaced with a high-definition camera, better communications so ground controllers can see the higher quality video, software to enable automatic detection of threats and tracking of 12 moving targets at once, and the ability to "super ripple" fire missiles within 0.32 seconds of each other.

On 25 February 2016, General Atomics announced a successful test flight of the new Predator-B/ER version. This new version has had the wingspan extended to , increasing its endurance to 40 hours. Other improvements include "short-field takeoff and landing performance and spoilers on the wings which enable precision automatic landings. The wings also have provisions for leading-edge de-ice and integrated low- and high-band RF antennas."

Operational history

U.S. Air Force

On 1 May 2007, the USAF's 432nd Wing was activated to operate MQ-9 Reaper as well as MQ-1 Predator UAVs at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada. The pilots first conducted combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan in the summer 2007. On 28 October 2007, the Air Force Times reported an MQ-9 had achieved its first "kill", successfully firing a Hellfire missile against Afghanistan insurgents in the Deh Rawood region of the mountainous Oruzgan province. By 6 March 2008, according to USAF Lieutenant General Gary North, the Reaper had attacked 16 targets in Afghanistan using  bombs and Hellfire missiles.

In 2008, the New York Air National Guard 174th Attack Wing began the transition from F-16 piloted fighters to MQ-9A Reapers, becoming the first fighter unit to convert entirely to unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) use. On 17 July 2008, the USAF began flying Reaper missions within Iraq from Balad Air Base. It was reported on 11 August 2008 that the 174th Fighter Wing would consist entirely of Reapers. By March 2009 the USAF had 28 operational Reapers. Beginning in September 2009, Reapers were deployed by the Africa Command to the Seychelles islands for use in Indian Ocean anti-piracy patrols.

On 13 September 2009, positive control of an MQ-9 was lost during a combat mission over Afghanistan, after which the control-less drone started flying towards the Afghan border with Tajikistan. An F-15E Strike Eagle fired an AIM-9 missile at the drone, successfully destroying its engine. Before the drone impacted the ground, contact was reestablished with the drone, and it was flown into a mountain to destroy it. It was the first US drone to be destroyed intentionally by allied forces.

By July 2010, thirty-eight Predators and Reapers had been lost during combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, another nine were lost in training missions in the U.S. In 2010, the USAF conducted over 33,000 close air support missions, a more-than-20 percent increase compared with 2009. By March 2011, the USAF had 48 Predator and Reaper combat air patrols flying in Iraq and Afghanistan compared with 18 in 2007.

As of March 2011, the USAF was training more pilots for advanced unmanned aerial vehicles than for any other single weapons system. In 2012, the Reaper, Predator and Global Hawk were described as "... the most accident-prone aircraft in the Air Force fleet."

In October 2011, the USAF began operating Reapers out of Arba Minch Airport in Ethiopia for surveillance-only operations in Somalia. In 2012, both Reapers and Predators were deployed in Benghazi, Libya after the attack that killed the US ambassador in that city. In February 2013, the U.S. stationed a Predator at Niamey to provide intelligence for French forces during Operation Serval in Mali; it was later replaced by two MQ-9 Reapers. In April 2013, one of these Reapers crashed on a surveillance flight due to mechanical failure.

On 22 October 2013, the USAF's fleets of MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper UAVs reached 2,000,000 flight hours. The RPA program began in the mid-1990s, taking 16 years for them to reach 1 million flight hours; the 2 million hour mark was reached just two and a half years later.

The high demand for UAVs has caused Air Combat Command to increase pilot output from 188 in 2015 to 300 in 2017 at Holloman.

On 13 November 2015, the Pentagon reported that an MQ-9 had killed ISIL member Mohammed Emwazi, popularly known as "Jihadi John", who was responsible for executing several Western prisoners.

In 2015, a record number (20) of USAF drones crashed; investigators identified three parts of the starter-generator that were susceptible to breakdowns, but could not determine why they were failing. Col. William S. Leister informed Pentagon officials that investigators from the USAF, General Atomics and Skurka had investigated the problem for more than a year. The team, he said, had identified "numerous manufacturing quality issues" yet had been unable to determine the exact cause of the failures.

On 2 October 2017, U.S. Central Command stated that an MQ-9 had been shot down by Houthi air defense systems over Sanaa in western Yemen the previous day.  The aircraft took off from Chabelley Airport in Djibouti, and was armed.

On 18 September 2018, the USAF announced that an MQ-9 armed with an air-to-air missile successfully shot down a smaller target drone in November 2017. The drone was operated by the 432nd Wing. While the destruction of a target drone is a routine USAF exercise, this event was the first instance of a Reaper destroying a small, maneuvering aerial target.

On 6 June 2019, Houthis shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper over Yemen. According to United States Central Command, it was shot down by an SA-6 surface-to-air missile that was enabled with Iranian assistance. On 21 August 2019, another unarmed MQ-9 was shot down by Houthis over Dhamar, Yemen, by a Yemini made Fater-1 missile, an improved SA-6.

On 23 November 2019, a US MQ-9 Reaper was shot down by a Pantsir system operated by the Libyan National Army or Wagner Group over Tripoli, Libya. According to journalist David Cenciotti, the drone was lost after being jammed by Russian Wagner militias working in support of the Libyan National Army.

On 3 January 2020, a US MQ-9 missile strike at Baghdad International Airport killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces.

On 18 August 2020, US Department of Defense announced that two US MQ-9 Reapers had crashed in a mid-air collision over Syria. However, claims from local media said that at least one drone might have been shot down by Syrian Opposition rebel fighters or Turkish forces.

In April 2021, U.S. and Polish militaries have agreed on a long-negotiated plan to increase the American presence in Poland with two units of MQ-9 Reapers deployed by the USAF.

On 14 July 2022, a MQ-9 Reaper operated by the 25th Attack Group crashed during a training mission in Romania. The MQ-9 drones have been deployed to the Romanian 71st Air Base in 2021, starting their operational flights on 1 February 2021.

On 14 March 2023, one of two intercepting Su-27 fighters of the Russian Federation collided with an MQ-9 Reaper flying in international airspace over the Black Sea. US Air Force Gen. James Hecker, commander of the United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa, stated, "At approximately 7:03 am (CET), one of the Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters. Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner. This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional." Russia says it will attempt to retrieve the drone. The US government claimed that it was prepared for such an outcome. John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, said that "their ability to exploit useful intelligence will be highly minimised". While the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said that there were "mitigating measures" to ensure that Russia obtained no access to valuable tech. He also confirmed that the US would look for the drone as well; however, the water in which it crashed was  deep. Brigadier General Pat Ryder claimed that drone was "unflyable and uncontrollable" and it likely damaged the Su-27 during the collision. The US has since released footage over the Black Sea.

On 23 July 2023, a Russian fighter aircraft unprofessionally intercepted a US Air Force MQ-9 over Syria and deployed flares in front of it, damaging the propeller. The drone returned to base safely. This was the third near-collision of MQ-9 with Russian aircraft over Syria for the month, with previous incidents on 5 July and 6 July.

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) initially expressed interest in a production version of the B-002 turbofan-powered variant, but instead leased an unarmed Reaper variant, which carries the GA-ASI company name "Altair".  Altair is one of the first three "Predator-B" airframes. The other two airframes, known as "Predator-B 001" and "Predator-B 002", had a maximum gross weight of .

The Altair differs from these models in that it has an  long wingspan ( greater than early and current MQ-9s). The Altair has enhanced avionics systems to better enable flights in FAA-controlled civil airspace and demonstrate "over-the-horizon" command and control capability from a ground station. These aircraft are used by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise as part of the NASA ERAST Program to perform on-location science missions.

In November 2006, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center obtained an MQ-9 (and mobile ground control station), named Ikhana, for the Suborbital Science Program within the Science Mission Directorate. In 2007, Ikhana was used to survey the Southern California wildfires, supporting firefighter deployments based upon the highest need. The California Office of Emergency Services requested NASA support for the Esperanza Fire, and the General Atomics Altair was launched less than 24 hours later on a 16-hour mission to map the fire's perimeter. The fire mapping research is a joint project with NASA and the US Forest Service.

The NASA Ikhana was used to survey the descent of the Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) module on its first test mission 5 December 2014. The aircraft loitered at , used its IR camera to detect the capsule, then switched to the optical camera to observe its descent through parachute deployment and landing in the Pacific Ocean.

U.S. Homeland Security

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operated nine MQ-9s in August 2012.  Two were based in North Dakota at Grand Forks Air Force Base, four were based in Arizona, at Fort Huachuca and one was based at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. These aircraft were equipped with GA-ASI's Lynx synthetic aperture radar and Raytheon's MTS-B electro-optical infrared sensors.

The CBP also had two maritime MQ-9s called Guardians, based at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. The Guardians were equipped with the SeaVue marine search radar; their electro-optical infrared sensor was optimized for maritime operations. The CBP operates one MQ-9 Guardian jointly with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) out of land-based stations in Florida and Texas.

The United States Department of Homeland Security initially ordered one Predator B for border protection duty, referred to as MQ-9 CBP-101. It began operations 4 October 2005 and crashed in the Arizona desert on 25 April 2006.  The US's NTSB determined that the crash's most likely cause was pilot error by the ground-based pilot, inadvertently shutting down the UAV's engine by failing to follow the checklist. During its operational period, the aircraft flew 959 hours on patrol and played a role in 2,309 arrests. It also contributed to the seizure of four vehicles and  of marijuana.

A second Predator B, called "CBP-104" (initially referred to as "CBP-102"), was delivered in September 2006 and commenced limited border protection operations on 18 October 2006. The president's FY2006 emergency supplemental budget request added $45 million for the program and the FY2007 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill added an additional $20 million. In October 2006, GA-ASI announced a $33.9 million contract to supply two more Predator B systems by the fall 2007. On 16 February 2009, the program was further expanded to include patrols of the Canada–US border.

On 14 October 2013, an MQ-9 began patrolling the Manitoba portion of the U.S.-Canada border. The UAV is based at Grand Forks Air Force Base and will watch the -long border. The drone will not carry weapons and needs permission to enter Canadian airspace. U.S. authorities fear that drug smugglers, migrants, and terrorists may exploit the long border. The use of the unmanned surveillance aircraft is an enhancement of the partnership between U.S. and Canadian agencies.

In January 2014, Customs and Border Protection grounded its UAVs temporarily after an unmanned aircraft was ditched off the coast of California by the operator due to a mechanical failure on 27 January 2014.

On 29 May 2020, during the George Floyd protests, CBP flew an unarmed Predator B drone above Minneapolis to watch protesters. The agency said it was at the request of federal law enforcement in Minneapolis.

U.S. Marine Corps
Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1 (VMU-1) began operations with the MQ-9 on a contractor owned, contractor operated basis in 2018, and accepted delivery of the Marine Corps' first two MQ-9A air frames in September 2021. Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3 (VMU-3), based out of MCAS Kaneohe Bay, HI received their first two MQ-9A air frames in April 2023, and reached initial operational capability (IOC) ahead of schedule in August 2023. Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 2 (VMU-2) was re-designated as VMUT-2 in July 2023. VMUT-2 will serve as the Fleet Replacement Squadron and training squadron for the Marine Corps' UAS officers and enlisted sensor operators.

Other users

Belgium
In January 2018, the Belgian Ministry of Defence reportedly decided on the MQ-9 to fulfill its medium-altitude long-range UAV requirement. Ministry officials stated that a request for information had been sent to potential suppliers of the system, and that they had received responses from all of them. In October 2018, Belgium confirmed its selection of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian variant, adding that it would be considered a "reconnaissance" asset, suggesting it will not be used to carry weapons. In March 2019, the US Department of State approved the sale of four MQ-9B SkyGuardian UAVs to Belgium for $600 million (~$ in ), pending approval by US Congress. In July 2022, work began on adapting the Florennes Air Base to host, fly and maintain the planes.

Dominican Republic
The Predator UAV "Guardian" has been used by the Dominican Republic, under U.S. supervision and funding, against drug trafficking from mid-2012.

France
On 31 May 2013, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed the order of two MQ-9 Reapers, to be delivered by the end of 2013. It was chosen to replace the EADS Harfang and was picked over the Israeli Heron TP. On 27 June 2013, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to France for 16 unarmed MQ-9s, associated equipment, ground control hardware, and support, worth up to $1.5 billion total. On 26 August 2013, France and the US Department of Defense concluded the deal for 16 Reapers and 8 ground control stations, with French operators beginning training.

On 24 September 2013, France's first pair of MQ-9 pilots conducted a two-hour training sortie at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.  Both French pilots had prior UAV experience and went through a five-week ground-based training course and 5 hours on a flight simulator before the first flight. Two additional crews were also receiving instruction at the facility. General Atomics is due to deliver two Reapers and one ground control station to the French Air Force by the end of 2013. On 26 November 2013, France declared that six pilots in three teams were operational, following 100 hours on flight simulators and 4 flights. French MQ-9s were first put into action in January 2014 at Niamey Air Base in Niger for border reconnaissance in the Sahel desert.

On 16 January 2014, France's first MQ-9 flight occurred from Niger. The first two Reapers to enter French service are designated Block 1 and use U.S. equipment; further orders are to be modified with European payloads such as sensors and datalinks. On 31 March 2014, French Air Force Reapers accumulated 500 flight hours in support of Operation Serval. In July 2014, a French MQ-9 helped to locate the wreckage of Air Algérie Flight 5017, which had crashed in Mali.

Germany
Germany made a request to purchase five Reapers and four ground control stations, plus related support material and training. The request, being made through the Foreign Military Sales process, was presented to Congress through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency on 1 August 2008 and is valued at US$205 million (~$ in ). However, Germany did not go through with this procurement for the time being and decided to lease the IAI Heron offered by IAI and Rheinmetall instead, initially for the duration of one year, representing a stop-gap measure before a long-term decision on a MALE-system is being made.

Greece
On 21 April 2022, a well-known Greek military journalist revealed in an interview that the Hellenic Air Force is discussing the purchase of three MQ-9 UCAVs along with the Israeli Heron TPs. Given that the US Air Force has long been operating MQ-9s from Larissa Air Base, Greece has some past experience with it from joint exercises. On 5 July 2022, the Hellenic Parliament approved the acquisition of 3 MQ-9B SeaGuardian UAVs along with two ground stations. On 28 July 2022, the Greek Minister of Nation Defence, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, confirmed the acquisition of the three UAVs.

India
In June 2017, the US State Department approved the sale of 22 drones to India, costing around $2–3 billion. As of February 2020, a deal to purchase 30 drones with 10 drones for each of the three Indian armed services, was expected to be signed by the end of the fiscal year. In November 2020, the Indian Navy began operating two leased MQ-9B SeaGuardians. The lease agreement was valid for one year and has been extended subsequently. The drones are deployed at the Naval Air Station Rajali located in Tamil Nadu. and it had logged close to 3,000 hours covering over 14 million square miles of operating area by August 2022. In February 2022, it was reported that Indian Navy had put the deal on the backburner and was instead looking at more indigenous options from the DRDO as well as upgrading its current fleet of IAI Heron drones. On 27 February 2022, PTI reported that the procurement for the 30 armed Predator B drones – 10 each for the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force is in the advanced stage and disputed earlier reports of the deal being put on the backburner with India reportedly providing "good feedback" on the SeaGuardians already on lease. On 15 June 2023, Reuters reported that the Indian side has approved the purchase of 31 drones worth slightly over $3 billion.  The formal announcement of the deal is expected during Modi's visit to the U.S. later in the month.

Italy
On 1 August 2008, Italy submitted a FMS request through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency for four aircraft, four ground stations and five years of maintenance support, all valued at US$330 million. Italy ordered two more aircraft in November 2009. On 30 May 2012, it was reported that the U.S. planned to sell kits to arm Italy's six Reapers with Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs. However Gen. Alberto Rosso has expressed frustration at American delays in integrating additional weapons onto the platform and suggested that Italy may have to seek UAS alternatives. Italian Reapers were used:
 in Libya, since 10 August 2011, as part of its contribution to NATO's Operation Unified Protector (flew about 300 hours)
 in Kosovo, since 13 March 2012 inbound NATO KFOR "Joint Enterprise" operation
 on "Mare Nostrum" mission (Mediterranean sea, migrants search and rescue operation) by October 2013
 into Afghanistan theater by January 2014 (to replace Predator A+).

On 3 November 2015, the U.S. approved a deal covering weapons integration onto Italy's Reaper aircraft, which would make it the first country outside the UK to weaponize the drone.  The potential for increased contribution to NATO coalition operations improved operational flexibility, and enhanced survivability for Italian forces prompted the request.

On 20 November 2019, an Italian Air Force MQ-9 was shot down by a Pantsir system operated by the Libyan National Army or Wagner Group, near the city of Tarhuna, Libya. The Libyan National Army claimed to have shot down the drone that, based on the initial reports, was thought to be a Turkish operated drone, supporting the opposed Government of National Accord. The Italian Defense confirmed the loss stating the cause of the crash is under investigation.

Netherlands
On 19 June 2013, General Atomics and Fokker Technologies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to offer the MQ-9 Reaper to the Dutch government for their need of a MALE UAV. The MOU recognizes that Fokker will assist in maintenance and support of the aircraft in the Netherlands if a deal goes through.

On 21 November 2013, the Dutch Minister of Defense announced that the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) has selected the MQ-9 Reaper Block-V as its new MALE UAV. The new MALE UAV 306 squadron will be based at Leeuwarden Air Base. In July 2018 the Dutch government signed a Letter of Acceptance for the acquisition through the Foreign Military Sales process.

The Dutch MQ-9 is to have the Synthetic Aperture Radar with the Maritime Search option and also a special ground search radar with more range and electronic sensors to detect ground radar and signals.  The RNLAF bought four ground stations (two at Homebase, two at forward operating base) and four MQ-9s Block-V. The aircraft are to reach full operational status in 2023. Four more systems are planned. The decision was also made to arm the Reapers.

Spain
On 6 August 2015, the Spanish Ministry of Defence announced it would buy four Reaper surveillance aircraft with two ground control stations for €25 million ($27 million) in 2016, costing €171 million over five years.  General Atomics will partner with Spanish Company SENER to deliver unarmed versions to Spain, making it the fifth European country to order the Reaper.  In addition to selecting the Reaper, Spain is interested in the joint German-French-Italian project to develop a European MALE UAV.

The Defense Department cleared the purchase on 6 October 2015.  Spain selected the Reaper over the Heron TP to perform homeland security, counter-insurgency, and counter-terrorism operations. The Spanish government agreed to purchase the system on 30 October. The Reaper was selected over the Heron TP mainly for commonality with NATO allies who also use the airframe.  Although Spain's immediate priority is for surveillance, they will eventually try to weaponize the platform.  The first two aircraft and first GCS is planned for delivery in 2017, with the third aircraft in 2018 when they achieve IOC, and the last in 2020 achieving full operational capability (FOC).

United Kingdom

On 27 September 2006, the U.S. Congress was notified by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency that the United Kingdom was seeking to purchase a pair of MQ-9A Reapers. They were initially operated by No. 39 Squadron from Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, later moving to RAF Waddington. A third MQ-9A was in the process of being purchased by the RAF in 2007. On 9 November 2007, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that its Reapers had begun operations in Afghanistan against the Taliban. In April 2008, following the crash of one of the UK's two Reapers, British special forces were sent to recover sensitive material from the wreckage before it was blown up to prevent the enemy from obtaining it. By May 2011, five Reapers were in operation, with a further five on order.

The second RAF squadron to operate five Reapers is No. XIII Squadron, which was formally activated and commissioned on 26 October 2012. No. 39 Squadron personnel were planned to gradually return to the UK in 2013 and in time both squadrons would each operate five Reapers from RAF Waddington. In April 2013, XIII Squadron started full operations from RAF Waddington, exercising control over a complement of 10 Reapers, at that point all based in Afghanistan.

Five Reapers can provide 36 hours of combined surveillance coverage in Afghanistan with individual sorties lasting up to 16 hours. A further five vehicles increases this to 72 hours. In total, RAF Reapers flew 71,000 flight hours in Afghanistan, and dropped 510 guided weapons (compared to 497 for Harrier and Tornado).

In April 2013, it was revealed that the MoD was studying the adoption of MBDA's Brimstone missile upon the MQ-9. In December 2013, several successful test firings of the Brimstone missile from a Reaper at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake to support integration onto RAF Reapers. Nine missiles were fired at an altitude of 20,000 ft at distances of  from the targets; all nine scored direct hits against static, accelerating, weaving, and fast remotely controlled targets.

In 2014, the MoD decided that its Reaper fleet will be brought into the RAF's core fleet once operations over Afghanistan cease.  Procurement of the MQ-9A was via an urgent operational capability requirement and funded from the Treasury reserve, but induction into the core fleet will have them funded from the MoD's budget. The Reapers were retained for contingent purposes, mainly to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), until its replacement enters service around 2018. On 4 October 2015 David Cameron announced that the RAF would replace its existing fleet of 10 Reapers with more than 20 of the "latest generation of RPAS", named as "Protector",

In an April 2016 document, the MoD revealed that Protector will be a version of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian, formally known as Certifiable Predator B (CPB), made to fly in European airspace, to be acquired from 2018 to 2030. In July 2018, it was announced that this aircraft will be designated Protector RG Mk 1 in RAF service, and is to be delivered in 2023.

On 16 October 2014, the MoD announced the deployment of armed Reapers in Operation Shader, the UK's contribution to the United States-led military intervention against Islamic State, the first occasion the UK had used its Reapers outside Afghanistan. The number of aircraft out of the RAF's 10-plane fleet was not disclosed, but it was expected that at least two were sent; more were dispatched as the UK drew down from Afghanistan. RAF Reapers' primary purpose is to provide surveillance support and situational awareness to coalition forces. On 10 November 2014, the MoD reported that an RAF Reaper had conducted its first airstrike against Islamic State forces, firing a Hellfire missile at militants placing an IED near Bayji.

RAF Reapers based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus conducted one surveillance mission over Syria in November 2014, four in December 2014, and eight in January 2015. On 7 September 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that two Islamic State fighters from Britain had been killed in an intelligence-led strike by an RAF Reaper near Raqqa, Syria, the first armed use of RAF assets in Syria during the civil war. By January 2016, RAF Reapers had flown 1,000 sorties in support of Operation Shader. Compared to operations in Afghanistan, where RAF Reapers fired 16 Hellfire missiles in 2008, 93 in 2013, and 94 in 2014, in operations against ISIL, 258 Hellfires were fired in 2015.

In May 2023, the UK announced it would be acquiring a carrier-based variant of the MQ-9, the General Atomics Mojave, for seven months of trials aboard its s.

United Arab Emirates
On 10 November 2020, the US State Department approved the sale of up to 18 MQ-9Bs to the UAE pending approval by Congress.

Taiwan
On 3 November 2020, the US State Department approved the sale of 4 MQ-9B, along with Control Stations and Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigations Systems (EGI) with Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) to Taiwan.

Japan
On 15 October 2020, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems conducted validation flights of the SeaGuardian UAV for the Japan Coast Guard (JCG). The test flight was conducted at a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) air base in Hachinohe. Both the JCG and JMSDF have expressed interest in acquiring SeaGuardian UAVs in order to conduct more ocean surveillance.

On 15 March 2023, the JMSDF will acquire a MQ-9B SeaGuardian for trials as part of its Medium-Altitude, Long-Endurance (MALE) RPAS Trial Operation Project.

Morocco
After the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement in 2020, the US is to approve the sale of four MQ-9B SeaGuardians to Morocco.

Potential operators

Canada
As of 25 September 2023, Royal Canadian Air Force is looking at purchasing the MQ-9 along with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, in a CA$5 billion contract. The drones are reportedly to be stationed at CFB Greenwood and CFB Comox, with personnel in Ottawa and Yellowknife to support the program. A contract is expected to be approved by Spring 2024.

Finland
As of Autumn 2021, Finnish Defence Forces is doing test flights with the MQ-9.

Poland
The Polish Ministry of National Defense announced on 28 February 2022 that it plans to purchase an unspecified number of MQ-9 Reaper drones.

Cancelled acquisitions

Australia
In September 2006, the General Atomics Mariner demonstrator aircraft was operated by the Australian Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTO) in an exercise designed to evaluate the aircraft's ability to aid in efforts to stem illegal fishing, drug running and illegal immigration. The Mariner operated from Royal Australian Air Force bases Edinburgh, South Australia and Learmonth, Western Australia in conjunction with a Royal Australian Navy Armidale class patrol boat, the Joint Offshore Protection Command, and the Pilbara Regiment.

In February 2015, it was announced that six RAAF personnel had been sent to Holloman AFB, New Mexico and Creech AFB, Nevada to undergo training.

In August 2015, it was revealed that Australians had begun flying MQ-9s over Syria, the first time Australia expanded operations past Iraq during the Military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  Five RAAF personnel were embedded with the USAF 432nd Operations Group, which flies armed Reapers, performing operational duties with the unit as MQ-9 system pilots and sensor operators.

In November 2018, the Defence Minister Christopher Pyne announced that Australia would purchase 12 to 16 MQ-9s. In November 2019, Australia announced the selection of the MQ-9B for its armed Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) RPAS requirement under Project Air 7003.

In April 2021, the State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Australia of 12 MQ-9B Reapers and related equipment for an estimated cost of $1.651 billion (~$ in ).

The Australian Government canceled the planned Reaper acquisition in March 2022. The funding intended for the project was redirected to expanding the Australian Signals Directorate.

Variants

SeaGuardian
A navalized Reaper, named Mariner, was proposed for the U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program.  It had an increased fuel capacity for an endurance of up to 49 hours. Variations included one for aircraft carrier operations with folding wings for storage, shortened, reinforced landing gear, an arresting hook, cut-down or eliminated ventral flight surfaces and six stores pylons for a total load of 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms). The Northrop Grumman RQ-4N was selected as the BAMS winner.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operates two maritime variants of the MQ-9, known as Guardians. The U.S. Coast Guard evaluated the Guardian, including performing joint operations with CBP. CBP and the Coast Guard operate one MQ-9 Guardian jointly out of land-based stations in Florida and Texas.

General Atomics continued with the Naval Reaper concept, turning it into the SeaGuardian. It has an endurance of more than 18 hours and can mount an eight-hour patrol at a radius of . A key part of its mission set is the Leonardo Seaspray 7500E V2 AESA radar mounted as a centerline pod with inverse synthetic aperture radar that can spot surface targets including ships, submarine periscopes, and people during search and rescue operations.

General Atomics studied testing a sonobuoy launch capability from the Guardian in 2016 to demonstrate its ability to carry them, control them, and send information back to the ground station over a SATCOM link. In November 2020, a company-owned Reaper carried out a trial releasing sonobuoys, then processing information from them to track a training target. This led to the creation of an anti-submarine warfare package for the SeaGuardian, the first self-contained ASW package for a UAS. The package comprises podded sonobuoy dispenser systems (SDS), using a pneumatic launch system to launch 10 A-size or 20 G-size buoys from each pod, and a sonobuoy management and control system (SMCS); the aircraft can carry up to four pods.

MQ-9 Block 5
On 24 May 2012, General Atomics conducted the successful first flight of its upgraded MQ-9 Block 1-plus Reaper. The Block 1-plus version was designed for increased electrical power, secure communications, automatic landing, increased gross takeoff weight (GTOW), weapons growth, and streamlined payload integration capabilities. A new high-capacity starter generator offers increased electrical power capacity to provide growth capacity; a backup generator is also present and is sufficient for all flight-critical functions, improving the electrical power system's reliability via three independent power sources.

New communications capabilities, including dual ARC-210 VHF/UHF radios with wingtip antennas, allow for simultaneous communications between multiple air-to-air and air-to-ground parties, secure data links, and an increased data transmission capacity. The new trailing arm main landing gear allows the carriage of heavier payloads or additional fuel. Development and testing were completed, and Milestone C was achieved in September 2012.  Follow-on aircraft will be redesignated MQ-9 Block 5. On 15 October 2013, the USAF awarded General Atomics a $377.4 million contract for 24 MQ-9 Block 5 Reapers. The MQ-9 Block 5 flew its first combat mission on 23 June 2017.

SkyGuardian

International demand for a MALE RPAS capable of being certified for operation within civilian airspace drove General Atomics to develop a version of the platform known by GA-ASI as MQ-9B SkyGuardian, previously called Certifiable Predator B, to make it compliant with European flight regulations to get more sales in European countries. In order to fly over national airspace, the aircraft meets NATO STANAG 4671 airworthiness requirements with lightning protection, different composite materials, and sense and avoid technology.

Performance changes include a  wingspan that has winglets and enough fuel for a 40-hour endurance at . Features include High Definition EO/IR Full Motion Video sensor, De/Anti-Icing System, TCAS, and Automatic Take-Off & Land. The system also includes a completely redesigned & modernized integrated ground control station with 4 crew stations.

On 28 November 2019, the Australian Government announced the selection of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) MQ-9B SkyGuardian as its preferred version of the Predator B for the RAAF's Project AIR 7003 MALE armed remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) requirement.

The SeaGuardian is a proposed version of SkyGuardian but also fitted with Multimode 360 Maritime Surface Search Radar and automatic identification system (AIS).

Protector
In April 2016, the United Kingdom announced that it intended to place an order for the Certifiable Predator B as part of its Protector MALE UAV program for the Royal Air Force. According to the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the Royal Air Force was to operate at least 20 Protector systems by 2025, replacing all of the ten MQ-9A Reapers. The order was subsequently limited to 16 systems.

On 15 July 2018, a GA-ASI Company-owned MQ-9B SkyGuardian was flown from the United States to RAF Fairford in the UK for the first transatlantic flight of a MALE UAV. It was displayed at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) air show, where the aircraft was given markings of No. 31 Squadron. This followed an announcement by the RAF's Chief of Air Staff that No. 31 Squadron would be the first RAF Squadron to operate a similar version of the MQ-9B aircraft, to be known as the Protector RG Mark 1 (RG1), starting in 2023. In July 2020, the Ministry of Defence signed a contract for three Protector UAVs with an option on an additional thirteen aircraft. It was announced in September 2021 that No. XIII Squadron will become the second Protector squadron.

Protector will be able to carry up to 18 Brimstone 2 missiles or Paveway IV bombs. The first of 16 Protector UAVs was delivered in September 2023 with initial operating capability in 2025 and full operating capability from 2026.

Operators

 French Air and Space Force (Armée de l'air et de l'espace)
 Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base, Charente
Escadron de Drones 1/33 Belfort

 Indian Navy – 2 on lease since Nov. 2020.
INS Rajali, Tamil Nadu

31 to be ordered

 Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare)
Amendola Air Base, Province of Foggia
 32° Stormo
28° Gruppo
Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily
 32° Stormo
61° Gruppo Volo

 Japan Coast Guard - 3 SeaGuardian in operational use since October 2022.

 Royal Netherlands Air Force – 4 on order as of 2020 with 4 more to be ordered in 2022.
 Leeuwarden Air Base, Friesland
No. 306 Squadron
 Tdy at Curaçao International Airport

 Polish Air Force - unspecified number of leased units in service since Feb 2023

 Spanish Air and Space Force
Talavera la Real Air Base, Extremadura
 ALA 23
 233 Escuadrón

 Royal Air Force – 10 ordered with 9 in active service. 1 more ordered in March 2021; 16 Protector UAVs ordered for delivery starting in 2023 to replace Reaper.
 RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire
No. XIII Squadron
 No. 54 Squadron (Operational Conversion Unit; converting to Protector UAV from 2023/24)
No. 31 Squadron (to form on Protector UAV from 2023/24)
Former: Creech Air Force Base, Nevada
No. 39 Squadron (2007–2022)

 United States Air Force
Air Combat Command
 49th Wing (Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico)
 6th Attack Squadron
 16th Training Squadron
 9th Attack Squadron
 29th Attack Squadron
 53d Wing (Eglin Air Force Base, Florida)
 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron (Creech Air Force Base, Nevada)
 432d Wing (Creech Air Force Base, Nevada)
 11th Attack Squadron
 15th Attack Squadron
 20th Attack Squadron (Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri)
 22d Attack Squadron
 50th Attack Squadron (Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina)
 89th Attack Squadron (Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota)
 482d Attack Squadron (Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina)
 489th Attack Squadron
United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa
 31st Operations Group
 731st Expeditionary Attack Squadron (71st Air Base, Romania)
 52d Expeditionary Operations Group
 Detachment 2 (12th Air Base, Poland)
 Air Force Special Operations Command
 27th Special Operations Wing (Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico)
 33d Special Operations Squadron
 58th Special Operations Wing (Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico)
 551st Special Operations Squadron
 Air National Guard
 107th Attack Wing (Niagara Falls Air Force Base, New York)
 136th Attack Squadron
 174th Attack Wing (Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, New York)
 138th Attack Squadron
 111th Attack Wing (Horsham Air Guard Station, Montgomery, Pennsylvania)
 103d Attack Squadron
 118th Wing (Berry Field, Nashville, Tennessee)
 105th Attack Squadron
 132d Wing (Des Moines Air National Guard Base, Des Moines, Iowa)
 124th Attack Squadron
 147th Attack Wing (Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, Houston, Texas)
 111th Reconnaissance Squadron
 163d Attack Wing (March AFB, California)
 160th Attack Squadron
 196th Attack Squadron
 178th Wing (Springfield-Beckley Air National Guard Station, Springfield, Ohio)
 188th Wing (188 WG) (Ebbing Air National Guard Station, Fort Smith, Arkansas)
 184th Attack Squadron
 110th Wing (Battle Creek Air National Guard Base, Battle Creek, Michigan)
 172d Attack Squadron
 Air Force Reserve Command
 919th Special Operations Wing (Duke Field, Florida)
 2d Special Operations Squadron
 U.S. Customs and Border Protection
 Sierra Vista, Arizona
 Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota
 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
 Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas

Specifications

MQ-9A Reaper

MQ-9B Skyguardian

See also

References

This article contains material that originally came from the web article Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by Greg Goebel, which exists in the public domain.

External links

 MQ-9 Predator Factsheet on U.S. Air Force site
 General Atomics Aeronautical Systems YMQ-9 Reaper – National Museum of the United States Air Force
 MQ-9 "Reaper" Predator B UAV Defense-Update.com
 General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (Predator B), Designation-Systems.net

Q-09 Reaper
Airborne military robots
Signals intelligence
Single-engined pusher aircraft
Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States
2000s United States attack aircraft
2000s United States military reconnaissance aircraft
War on terror
Synthetic aperture radar
Aircraft first flown in 2001
Single-engined turboprop aircraft
Unmanned military aircraft of the United States

General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper


Gar Alperovitz (born May 5, 1936) is an American historian and political economist. Alperovitz served as a fellow of King's College, Cambridge; a founding fellow of the Harvard Institute of Politics; a founding Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies; a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution; and the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland Department of Government and Politics from 1999 to 2015. He also served as a legislative director in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate and as a special assistant in the US Department of State. Alperovitz is a distinguished lecturer with the American Historical Society, co-founded the Democracy Collaborative and co-chairs its Next System Project with James Gustav Speth.

Education and early career
Born in Racine, Wisconsin in 1936, Alperovitz graduated from the University of Madison-Wisconsin with a degree in American history in 1959 and from the University of California, Berkeley with an M.A. in economics in 1960. He was awarded a Marshall scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in political economy at the London School of Economics, later transferring to Cambridge University to study under theoretical economist Joan Robinson, who served as his doctoral thesis adviser. Alperovitz wrote his dissertation on the role of the atomic bomb in the creation of the postwar economic order. While completing his doctoral studies, he worked for two years in the US House of Representatives as a legislative assistant to Robert Kastenmeier. He was named a fellow of King's College, Cambridge University in 1964.

On leave from courses, Alperovitz served as the legislative director for Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1964 and 1965, where he played a role in efforts to limit the scope of powers given to the President in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, drafting an amendment to the resolution that would have prevented the escalation to a full ground war in Vietnam. In 1965 he accepted a post as a special assistant (policy planning, United Nations) to the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations. In 1966 Alperovitz joined the Brookings Institution as a non-resident guest scholar. He was elected as a founding fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School that year.

Cold War historian
In 1965 Simon and Schuster published Alperovitz's Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam, based on his Cambridge doctoral thesis. Drawing on the diaries of Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, the work argued that after Germany's defeat, U.S. policymakers based their strategy toward the Soviet Union on the judgment that the atomic bomb, once demonstrated, would provide leverage in negotiating the postwar world order. Alperovitz also reported that, at the time, there was substantial but not definitive evidence suggesting that gaining diplomatic leverage against the Soviet Union was a major consideration in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The book, published as the Vietnam War generated increasing public concern, became a focal point in the debate over the direction of American foreign policy in the mid- and late 1960s. Although critically reviewed at the time by many, such as former Truman Administration Cabinet member Senator Clinton Anderson in The New York Times, others welcomed it. Historian Michael Beschloss observed in a 1985 New York Times retrospective that Atomic Diplomacy had immense "shock value" during a time when the public was less skeptical "about the motives of our leaders and the origins of the cold war" and that Alperovitz's argument "pushed other scholars to re-examine their assumptions about Hiroshima and Nagaski." Yale historian Gaddis Smith wrote in The New York Times in 1995 that "the preponderance of new evidence that has appeared since 1965 tends to sustain the original argument."

Alperovitz has written extensively on the decision to use the atomic bomb in such publications as The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. He revisited the subject in The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth published by Knopf in 1995 on the 50th anniversary of the decision. The work added further research demonstrating that top American and British World War II military leaders believed the war would end in the Pacific Theater long before an invasion of Japan could begin in November, and that they had attempted to convince top civilian leaders, including the president, that this was likely. The book demonstrated that virtually every top World War II U.S. military leader, including President (previously General) Eisenhower, went public after the war with statements suggesting that the use of the atomic bomb was unnecessary. A major part of the work documented the sophisticated public relations effort the Truman administration mounted to sustain public belief that using the bomb was necessary and, as Beschloss observed in a New York Times review, "why the public clings so tenaciously to the original explanation of why Truman gave the order." Historian Marilyn Young observed in a featured review of the book in the American Historical Review that "few historians I know have taken up the central ethical and historical issues surrounding the first, and thus far only, use of nuclear bombs as seriously as Alperovitz." A full-length ABC documentary anchored by Peter Jennings brought the argument to a broader audience. Other documentaries including one by the BBC and a dramatization by a German television network helped increase international interest.

Community wealth-building and the pluralist commonwealth model
Alperovitz's work as a political economist has centered on theoretical and practical alternatives to both corporate capitalism and traditional state socialism. He holds that the architecture of both suffers from centralized power that fails to support liberty, equality, ecological sustainability, genuine participatory democracy, and community. Challenging both theories of reform and of revolution, he emphasizes a model based on the evolutionary reconstruction of economic institutions, communities, and the nation as a whole. In American Beyond Capitalism and other books and essays, Alperovitz offers an integrated systemic model for a pluralist commonwealth based on democratizing ownership of economic institutions at all levels, a regional decentralization of economic and political power, and the building of forms of community wealth-holding and a culture of participatory democracy.

The pluralist commonwealth model includes diverse forms of democratized ownership, from worker-community cooperatively owned production firms to municipally owned institutions, public banks, utilities, land trusts, and public transportation. Regional scaling of larger public enterprises and longer-term political decentralization are proposed as ways to transform and displace extractive elements of financialized corporate capitalism. Alperovitz also acknowledges the utility of certain forms of private enterprises and markets along with participatory economic planning. This model attempts to expand the limits of political economic possibilities beyond the polarity between state ownership and capitalism. The model also proposes a reduction in the workweek, providing workers more free time and allowing for more liberty and democratic participation. It proposes that as population continues to grow, a long-term devolution of the national state in the direction of regional structures can allow for democratic participation and democratic management of ecological issues.

In a 1978 profile, biographer Ron Chernow wrote: "Alperovitz believes that co-ops and other experimental enterprises can flourish in strong, stable communities…When Alperovitz talks about socialism (and he usually avoids the term, as much for its imprecision as its emotional charge), he doesn't mean a group of Soviet-style commissars and technocrats handing down production quotas from Washington. Rather, he foresees thousands of local planning boards acting as conduits for citizen participation. Decisions would trickle up from below, forming a barrier against the sort of bureaucratic monolith that most people equate with planning," as well as with corporate capitalism. Alperovitz has said his work is influenced by his studies at the University of Wisconsin with historian William Appleman Williams, at Cambridge University with post-Keynesian theoretical economist Joan Robinson, and by his work with Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, an early environmentalist and the founder of Earth Day.

Building experimental economic centers and developing community, regional, and related system altering legislation
Alperovitz's interest in developing alternative economic models based on community wealth building began while he was in the federal government. Over 40 years, he has worked to create several institutions to develop an expansive theory and to implement principles on the ground. In addition to those noted at the outset, he co-founded The Cambridge Institute and The National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives. In 1964, while working in the Senate, he was the principal architect of legislation to create several regional planning commissions that might lead to efforts similar to the Appalachian Regional Commission as part of the Johnson Administration's War on Poverty. Along with John McClaughry, he co-authored the Community Self-Determination Act of 1968, sponsored by a bipartisan coalition of 26 senators, which introduced an expansive ownership-oriented conception of already established Community Development Corporations (CDC) as a new institutional form.

In 1964 Alperovitz met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and in 1967 he began work with King and high-level aides Andrew Young and Bernard Lee to explore a possible community-building economic strategy that might also build political power. This work was cut short by King's assassination in 1968.

Youngstown activism
Alperovitz is recognized as the leading architect of the first modern steel industry attempt at worker ownership. In 1977, after failing to invest in the modernization of its production machinery, the holding company that owned the large steel manufacturer Youngstown Sheet & Tube shut down its plant in Youngstown, Ohio, and laid off more than 4,000 workers in a single day—still known in the community as Black Monday. In response, these steelworkers and a broad-based community coalition decided to attempt to reopen the mill under Alperovitz's comprehensive plan for worker-community ownership. Advocates of the plan argued that the plant became unprofitable only because rent-seeking corporate owners shifted investments to other locations and industries instead of investing in modernizing the plant, whereas community ownership could foster efficient production and long-term investment.

This coalition asked Alperovitz and the National Center for Economic Alternatives to develop a comprehensive feasibility study and effort. A nationwide campaign led by national religious leaders put the Youngstown effort on the map, and with Alperovitz's help, the coalition secured support from the Carter administration's Department of Housing and Urban Development for a sophisticated plan along with a pledge to provide loan guarantees. A comprehensive study by a leading steel industry expert demonstrated that the community could feasibly reopen the mill under a worker-community ownership program after updating it with modern technology. The Carter administration later withdrew its loan pledges after the midterm elections of 1978.

Vietnam War activism
Alperovitz was involved in efforts to stop the escalating Vietnam War for several years, both as a political actor and later as an activist. While still Legislative Director to Senator Gaylord Nelson, Alperovitz authored an amendment to the famed Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that would have pre-empted the massive escalation of the war that ensued after the Resolution passed. After being appointed and serving for a year as Special Assistant to the U.S State Department, Alperovitz resigned his post discouraged by insider attempts to alter US war policy.

From 1966 to 1968, while a Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics, Alperovitz played a role in the burgeoning antiwar movements coalescing in Cambridge at the time, developing the "Vietnam Summer" activism campaign centered on canvassing and teaching. The New Yorker at the time credited Alperovitz with devising the campaign's strategy, which sought to educate and agitate "undecideds and unaffiliated doves" into taking action against the war. Alperovitz arranged for Martin Luther King Jr. and writer and physician Benjamin Spock to join the effort and formally kick off the project.

Role in the Pentagon Papers
In 1971 Alperovitz met Daniel Ellsberg at a Cambridge dinner party. Alperovitz was unaware that months earlier, while still a RAND employee, Ellsberg had secretly made several sets of photocopies of a classified United States Department of Defense report on the history of the Vietnam War, giving a portion of one set to New York Times journalist Neil Sheehan. These documents, which later became known as the Pentagon Papers, revealed that the US government had known from an early point in the conflict that it could not win the Vietnam War, and further showed that each administration since Eisenhower, and especially the Johnson administration, had "systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress" about the conduct of the war.

To keep the publication of the Pentagon Papers going, Alperovitz developed a strategy to hand off portions of the report to one news publication at a time beginning with The Washington Post—which helped to create an ongoing media spectacle and to keep public interest in the contents of the papers alive for several weeks. With Ellsberg in hiding, Alperovitz handled the logistics of handing off the papers to the press, adopting the moniker "Mr. Boston" when speaking to journalists and exercising great caution in planning elaborate handoffs. In an interview with The New Yorker, Ellsberg said that "Alperovitz, in particular, was critical to the way this thing worked out … it was Alperovitz who devised the strategy of distributing the papers to as many news organizations as possible, including [to Ben Bagdikian at] The Washington Post, an approach that later proved to be crucial from both a legal and a public-relations standpoint. And it was Alperovitz who came up with the elaborate techniques for slipping the documents to reporters while evading the authorities."

Works

Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam
In this work, Alperovitz investigates the role of the atomic bomb in shaping the formation of the U.S relationship with the Soviet Union and the makeup of the postwar international political order. Alperovitz provides evidence that once the atomic bomb had successfully been tested, the U.S policy towards the Soviet Union under the Truman Administration shifted from "conciliatory" to "tough" and he argues that Truman used the U.S possession of the atomic bomb as a diplomatic tool to force "Soviet acquiescence to American plans" for postwar Europe as the two powers negotiated at the Potsdam Conference." In this work, Alperovitz also presents substantive, although not definitive, evidence suggesting that top-level American civilian and military leaders knew the atomic bomb was not necessary to end World War II, but still used it to demonstrate strength vis-á-vis the Soviet Union.

The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
Drawing upon a host of new evidence that had been declassified since the publication of Atomic Diplomacy, such as the diary of U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, in this work Alperovitz offers what Harper's called "the most definitive account we are likely to see of why Hiroshima was destroyed, and how an official history justifying that decision was subsequently crafted and promulgated by the national security establishment." He argues that the preponderance of evidence suggests that it was not military necessity but rather the U.S.'s geostrategic motives vis-à-vis the Soviet Union that most influenced Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan. Although Alperovitz acknowledges that "a full and unqualified answer as to why the atomic bomb was used is neither essential nor possible", he says that "what is important is whether, when the bomb was used, the president and his top advisers understood that it was not required to avoid a long and costly invasion, as they later claimed and as most Americans still believe."

America Beyond Capitalism
In this work Alperovitz chronicles growing discontent with the current political economy status quo, and diagnoses the long-term structural ills of the American political and economic system as inherent to capitalism's systemic architecture. He writes, "The book argues that the only way for the United States to once again honor its great historic values—above all equality, liberty, and meaningful democracy—is to build forward to achieve what amounts to systemic change...fundamental change—indeed, radical systemic change...If equality, liberty, and meaningful democracy can truly no longer be sustained by the political and economic arrangements of the current system, this defines the beginning phases of what can only be called a systemic crisis—an era of history in which the political-economic system must slowly lose legitimacy because the realities it produces contradict the values it proclaims. Moreover, if the system itself is at fault, then self-evidently—indeed, by definition—a solution would ultimately require the development of a new system." Alperovitz offers a remedy in the form of grassroots experiments currently underway in thousands of U.S. communities, which he sees as precedents that popular movements can use to plant the seeds of the next, more democratic economy. He points to worker cooperatives, municipal ownership of utilities, community land trusts, and larger institutions such as public banks and public transportation, as a roadmap for "laying foundations to change a faltering system that increasingly fails to support the great American values of equality, liberty, and meaningful democracy."

Unjust Deserts
With his co-author Lew Daly, Alperovitz explores the connection between the economic impact of socially-created knowledge and rising economic inequality to argue that "a new aristocracy is reaping huge unearned gains from our collective intellectual wealth." Alperovitz summarizes the work in an interview with Dissent: "... our main focus is on the broader problem of inequality, not on undeserved fortunes per se. The problem we see is a society whose wealth is commonly created, by and large, but very unequally distributed and enjoyed. The largely collective way we produce our wealth is morally out of sync with the individualistic way we distribute the wealth and also justify the resulting vast inequalities. So we're not saying to the Bill Gateses of the world: you don't deserve anything and we're going to tax it all away. What we're saying is that our society should be more equal than it is if we truly believe, first, that people should be rewarded according to what they contribute, and second, that society should be repaid for the large contributions it makes, which enable everything else. These are common beliefs or, at least, reasonable ideas, so that is not the problem. The problem is a mistaken view of wealth-creation, which distorts how these common ideas are applied."

Books
 Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965). Other editions: German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, British
 Cold War Essays, with an Introduction by Christopher Lasch (New York: Doubleday, 1970)
 Strategy and Program, with S. Lynd (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973)
 Rebuilding America, with J. Faux (New York: Pantheon, 1984)
 American Economic Policy, ed. with R. Skurski (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984)
 The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995). Other editions:  German, Japanese, Korean, British
 The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (New York: Vintage Books, 1996). British edition (Harper Collins).
 Making a Place for Community, with D. Imbroscio and T. Williamson (New York: Routledge, 2002)
 America Beyond Capitalism:  Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy (John Wiley & Sons, , October 2004)
 Building Wealth: The New Asset-Based Approach to Solving Social and Economic Problems (Washington, D.C.: The Aspen Institute, April 2005) (Democracy Collaborative Report, under the direction of Gar Alperovitz)
 Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back, with Lew Daly (New York: New Press, 2008)
 What Then Must We Do?: Straight Talk about the Next American Revolution (Chelsea Green, 2013)
 Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth (The Democracy Collaborative, 2017)

References

External links
 www.democracycollaborative.org
 www.thenextsystem.org
 www.pluralistcommonwealth.org
 www.garalperovitz.com/

 University of Maryland Archive
 Gar Alperovitz and David Harvey on "Cooperation and Capitalism"

American economists
Historians of the United States
Cold War historians
Jewish American historians
American male non-fiction writers
Jewish American social scientists
University of Maryland, College Park faculty
University of Maryland College of Behavioral and Social Sciences people
1936 births
Living people
University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni
Historians of American foreign relations
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
Worker cooperatives
UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
American expatriates in England
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Writers from Racine, Wisconsin
Historians from Wisconsin

Gar Alperovitz


Hérard Dumesle (16 June 1784 – 22 June 1858) was a Haitian poet and politician.

Politics
Dumesle, a mulatto, opposed the government of Jean-Pierre Boyer and formed a group of like-minded young mulattoes called the Society for the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Dumesle's cousin, Charles Rivière-Hérard, led the Revolution of 1843 which forced President Boyer to flee the country. Rivière-Hérard then succeeded Boyer as President of Haiti. Dumesle served as president of the Constituent Assembly and later as a Minister during his cousin's rule. After an 1844 coup d'état, both Dumesle and Rivière-Hérard were forced into exile. They settled in Jamaica and remained there for the rest of their lives.

Works
As a poet, Dumesle's most remembered work is the historical Macanda. He is also known for composing a poem in honor of Jonathas Granville, the director of the Lycee of Port-au-Prince: "Dithyrambe élégiaque sur la mort de Jonathas Granville."

Notes

References

Foreign Ministers of Haiti
Haitian people of Mulatto descent
1784 births
1858 deaths
19th-century Haitian poets
Haitian male poets
Haitian emigrants to Jamaica
19th-century male writers

Hérard Dumesle


Potassium oxide (KO) is an ionic compound of potassium and oxygen. It is a base. This pale yellow solid is the simplest oxide of potassium. It is a highly reactive compound that is rarely encountered.  Some industrial materials, such as fertilizers and cements, are assayed assuming the percent composition that would be equivalent to  K2O.

Production
Potassium oxide is produced from the reaction of oxygen and potassium; this reaction affords potassium peroxide, K2O2.  Treatment of the peroxide with potassium produces the oxide:
 K2O2 + 2 K -> 2 K2O

Alternatively and more conveniently, K2O is synthesized by heating potassium nitrate with metallic potassium:
2KNO3 + 10K -> 6K2O + N2 (^)

Other possibility is to heat potassium peroxide at 500 °C which decomposes at that temperature giving pure potassium oxide and oxygen.

2K2O2 -> 2K2O + O2 (^)

Potassium hydroxide cannot be further dehydrated to the oxide but it can react with molten potassium to produce it, releasing hydrogen as a byproduct.

2KOH + 2K <=> 2K2O + H2 (^)

Properties and reactions
K2O crystallises in the  antifluorite structure.  In this motif the positions of the anions and cations are reversed relative to their positions in CaF2, with potassium ions coordinated to 4 oxide ions and oxide ions  coordinated to 8 potassium. K2O is a basic oxide and reacts with water violently to produce the caustic potassium hydroxide. It is deliquescent and will absorb water from the atmosphere, initiating this vigorous reaction.

Term use in industry
The chemical formula K2O (or simply 'K') is used in several industrial contexts: the N-P-K numbers for fertilizers, in cement formulas, and in glassmaking formulas. Potassium oxide is often not used directly in these products, but the amount of potassium is reported in terms of the K2O equivalent for whatever type of potash was used, such as potassium carbonate. For example, potassium oxide is about 83% potassium by weight, while potassium chloride is only 52%. Potassium chloride provides less potassium than an equal amount of potassium oxide. Thus, if a fertilizer is 30% potassium chloride by weight, its standard potassium rating, based on potassium oxide, would be only 18.8%.

References

External links

Oxides
Potassium compounds
Deliquescent substances
Fluorite crystal structure

Potassium oxide