MQ-9 Reaper Scores “1st Kill” In Air-To-Air Combat, Reports Say; Is A New Era In Aerial Warfare Set To Unfold?

By
Sakshi Tiwari
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The landscape of drone warfare may be going through a tectonic shift, as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) take on air-to-air combat roles. While currently limited in scale, the drone-to-drone fighting could completely transform aerial warfare.

In August 2025, the US Army reported its first air-to-air kill against a target unmanned aerial system (UAS) using an armed quadcopter drone flown in first-person-view (FPV) mode.

This test, hailed as ‘historic’, demonstrated the potential of low-cost FPV drones as counter-drone interceptors, inspired by tactics seen in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The tactic is in line with the Pentagon’s “Unleashing US Military Drone Dominance” Directive, which calls for drone proliferation across domains and emphasizes scalable counter-drone technology and mandatory training to address gaps in capabilities.

Interestingly, while the US Army is assessing the use of low-cost drones to shoot down hostile UAS, an MQ-9 Reaper that costs more than $30 million, seems to have gone for the kill against an unidentified aerial object near Yemen.

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A couple of American MQ-9 Reaper drones attempted to shoot down an unidentified object in the air off the coast of Yemen in October 2024, as shown in a video that was played by Rep.

Eric Burlison, a member of the US Congress, during a hearing on “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP) on September 9. While the video and the circumstances surrounding it are currently unclear, it seems to be the first time a Reaper has engaged any type of aerial target in an operational setting.

The video was shown by Burlinson during the hearing on US government transparency regarding so-called unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), previously known as  Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) that have been linked to extra-terrestrial activity as well as classified military program testing, as reported by the EurAsian Times on several occasions.

Before the hearing began, Burlinson said the video shows an MQ-9 drone tracking an orb or an object (seen in the video) off the coast of Yemen. “You’ll see that another MQ-9 launched an AGM-114 Hellfire missile that – you cannot see that [other] drone.”

The video shows the said AGM-114 hitting the target, sending some debris flying, and then veering away without doing any damage. Meanwhile, the object is seen moving steadily till the end of the footage despite being struck directly by a missile.

“It looks like the debris was taken with it,” Burlison said after the video ended. “I’m not going to speculate what it is.” He later emphasized that an “independent review is ongoing” and that the “footage [is] presented as received from a whistleblower.” Burlinson essentially disclosed a coordinated, yet failed, attempt by two Reapers to down the object.

Analysts have suggested that the Reaper might have targeted a Houthi drone or even a balloon, possibly using a non-explosive Hellfire variant. Some observers noted that the object in the video might have been a slow-moving and steady object if intercepted by the MQ-9. However, these are mere conjectures at this point.

There is currently no clarity on whether the MQ-9 Reapers were specifically assigned the role of shooting down Houthi drones or if that was an impromptu mission they took up to protect friendly forces from an attack. However, this mission further validates the utility of drones as cost-effective interceptors, especially as drone warfare is now believed to be the future of all combat.

MQ-9 Reaper’s Potential As A Drone Killer

The US has extensively deployed MQ-9 Reapers in combat against the Yemen-based Houthis to dissuade the Iran-backed militia from targeting ships in the Red Sea. In fact, the Houthis have claimed to have downed at least 15 MQ-9 Reapers since October 2023.

The Reaper was primarily designed for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and precision strikes against ground targets, which means that it was not originally built for high-threat, peer-level combat, including air-to-air engagements. Moreover, the slow speed of the Reaper, along with a large radar cross-section and reliance on beyond-line-of-sight communications, makes it vulnerable to advanced air defenses.

However, despite these shortcomings, some ongoing modifications to this drone are likely expanding its potential role against unmanned threats, as evidenced by Burlinson’s video.

The MQ-9 Reaper has been equipped with the Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS-B), which integrates electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) cameras, laser designators, and rangefinders for target acquisition up to several miles away. This essentially allows the drone to detect and designate small, fast-moving aerial targets like drones, even though its sensors are optimized for ground observation rather than high-speed air intercepts.

The Reaper can carry up to eight laser-guided Hellfires that reach speeds of Mach 1.3 and are effective against low-and-slow threats. In addition, it has been fitted with up to four heat-seeking AIM-9X air-to-air missiles during past testing.

While the targeting of the UAP off the coast in Yemen is the first time that the Reaper has conducted an aerial engagement, the plans to train sophisticated US drones to go for aerial kills have been taking shape for a while.

MQ-9-Drones
File Image: MQ-9-Drones

For instance, in 2017, the US Air Force conducted a test at White Sands Missile Range that saw an MQ-9 successfully downing a BQM-167 target drone.

Similarly, in 2020, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, which is believed to be a cousin of the Reaper, also intercepted smaller drones using Hellfire missiles. 

The US Air Force (USAF) has launched concerted efforts to combat burgeoning security threats posed by cheap drones. This includes employing fighter jets equipped with air-to-air missiles to take down drones, due to the jet’s ability to provide rapid response, kinetic interception capabilities, and integration with broader air defense networks. More recently, the service started employing the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) laser-guided rockets for cost-effective engagements against slow-moving, low-altitude drones.

However, switching to interceptor drones for taking down hostile UAS would, perhaps, be a radical transformation to a much more cost-effective solution. This has already been demonstrated in the grinding Ukraine war, which has certainly been the greatest battle laboratory in the history of warfare. 

Drone-On-Drone Warfare

The Ukraine War has come to be known as the first drone war in the world due to the scale at which drones have been used in combat by both sides.

The war zone saw an unprecedented proliferation in low-cost kamikaze drones, loitering munitions, and expendable First-Person View (FPV) drones on the battlefield. These drones soon became a symbol of asymmetric warfare as the enemy was forced to use expensive, valuable, and hard-to-produce surface-to-air missiles to shoot them down.

This expansion in the use of cheap attack drones on the battlefield paved the way for the development of counter-drone systems, such as interceptor drones. Both sides have now developed and deployed interceptor drones that can take down hostile UAVs in what is known as drone-to-drone fighting or air-to-air drone combat. These drones are deployed sparingly as of now, but both sides are now scaling production of interceptor drones, as noted by a recent Forbes report.

The drone-to-drone fighting extends beyond traditional drone uses like surveillance or ground strikes, evolving into a form of aerial dogfighting without human pilots. The core idea is to counter the proliferation of cheap, swarming drones by deploying specialized interceptor UAVs that can detect, pursue, and destroy threats mid-air.

The drone-to-drone kills can be achieved using kinetic approaches, with directed-energy weapons (lasers), and using electronic warfare.

Typically, low-cost drones can overwhelm defenses, making traditional anti-air systems like missiles inefficient and expensive. However, the introduction of drones as interceptors could level the field by being disposable, autonomous, and scalable. Thus, addressing the asymmetry of warfare in modern combat.

In the Ukraine war, the affordability and portability of the small interceptor don’t come at the expense of performance or speed.  Many interceptors have the speed to surpass enemy drones mid-air.  They are being equipped with smaller Artificial Intelligence (AI) chips more frequently, which allow for more sophisticated target recognition and computer vision. Once launched, they can identify, track, and engage hostile drones on their own, enabling them to function on a fire-and-forget basis.

Drones could form mesh networks for real-time data sharing, with one “supervisory” unit evaluating strikes and adapting, as noted by Tommy Lund, a reporter with Reuters, on X.

Though this form of drone combat is still evolving and is taking place on a small scale, it is gaining widespread popularity globally. The interceptor drones can be produced at a relatively low cost by leveraging existing drone production infrastructure. Additionally, instead of making separate units for drones, they could be integrated into existing units for a coordinated response.

While it is widely agreed that the role of close-range agility demonstrated by fighter jets is indispensable, we could soon witness fully autonomous, AI-driven battles where drone swarms operate like self-coordinating combat formations in the future, reducing the risk of human casualties.

 

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