The MQ-9 Reaper has become the signature weapon of the war against terror, an eye in the sky able to scrutinize targets on the ground for extended periods before delivering laser-guided precision strikes. As a combat aircraft though, it lacks speed and maneuverability and the ability to survive against modern air defenses. Rather than retiring the drones though, the U.S. military is intent on upgrading its Reapers from assassins to warriors capable of taking on near-peer opponents.

The enhanced Reapers are more survivable thanks to new electronics, and will be motherships for smaller, expendable drones and loitering munitions.

The U.S. military are already experimenting with new combat roles for the drones. Last month's Agile Reaper exercise had them working with a Marine unit, providing close air support as the Marines made an amphibious landing. The exercise was conducted from Naval Air Station Point Mugu in California, with the Reapers supported by a special mobile crew able to operate from sparse forward bases. This was described as ‘island hopping’ – a reference to the WWII Pacific strategy of taking one island after another, using each as the taking-off point for an attack on the next and which would only seem relevant for a conflict with China.

In another exercise, the U.S. Navy teamed one of their MQ-9Bs in a hunter-killer pairing with the cruiser USS Princeton. The drone’s sensors located distant targets which the ship engaged with long-range guided weapons, a mission a world away from hunting terrorists. Again, the obvious opposition for such a mission would be China.

Perhaps the biggest Achilles Heel of any drone is the radio communications link with the operator. This is not an issue in counter-insurgency, but near-peers are expected to have highly capable radio jammers. It is no surprise then that the U.S.A.F is upgrading its Reaper fleet to the Multi-Domain Operation (M2DO) standard. This emphasizes jam resistance and includes other classified capabilities. The Reaper’s makers, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI), have developed an Airborne Laser Communications System providing unjammable, undetectable communication with satellites via an laser link – like fiber optic with the cable.

The Air Force has also developed an Artificial Intelligence suite for Reapers under the name Agile Condor to enable drones to continue their mission even when communications are lost.

GAS-ASI has also tested a Reaper with a new Self Protection Pod for U.S. Special Operations Command. In a demonstration, the pod detected and tracked both heat-seeking and radar-guided missiles threats and deployed countermeasures in a ‘simulated contested environment’ – in other words, against a modern anti-aircraft defenses.

As part of the effort, GA-ASI integrated the Brite Cloud decoy with the Reaper. Brite Cloud is a miniature device the size of a soda can with pop-out wings which glides after launch. Brite Cloud’s digital jammer detects incoming radar pulses and broadcasts on the same wavelength, blinding the radar seeker. Missile makers have tried to counter this with “home-on-jam” guidance, which uses the jamming signal as a beacon – except that any missile chasing this decoy jammer will miss the target aircraft.

The other side of the development is giving Reaper a stand-off attack capability. The drones has long been able to launch other drones, but we have seen a huge uptick in new developments, in particular the family of Air Launched Effects drones developed by the U.S. Army. These are small, modular vehicles which can carry sensors, warheads or other devices, and which may be expendable or reusable.

Last week GA-ASI trailed new Air Launched Effects for the Reaper without giving details. The company has previously disclosed a 10-tube launch module for the Reaper which can dispense small drone or loitering munitions, like the 15-pound Altius-500 with a range of over 100 miles.

Perhaps most intriguingly we have the Sparrowhawk. Originally developed by GA-ASI as a contender for DARPA’s Gremlins air-launched swarm project, this is a 200-pound, jet-powered drone that can be launched from a Reaper and has been adaptyed to other roles. Like the original Gremlin project, it may be possible to recover and refuel Sparrowhawk mid-air.

“I’ll just say, in general, I think there’s an advantage to having a small [drone] being able to be air refueled,” Chris Pehrson, GA-ASI’s VP for strategic development told FlightGlobal. “Especially when you have a mothership that can stay airborne for forty hours.”

Potentially a Reaper could remain at long range, releasing one or more Sparrowhawks to scout a target area. Once found, the Reaper could engage targets with a salvo of smaller loitering munitions, communicating with the drones with Rosetta Echo Advanced Payload Pod (REAP), another new development which links to disparate radio networks at ranges of 100 miles or more.

Of course, even with all the upgrades, a Reaper will never be as capable as a modern manned fighter like the F-35 with its advanced stealth, supersonic speed and unrivalled sensors. But Reapers are likely to be a vital tool in any confrontation with a major power (read: China) simply because unmanned systems can go where manned aircraft cannot.

Reapers can take on missions too risky for manned planes, and losing one is an inconvenience, not an international incident. They allow for a graduated application of force short of outright war, the type of conflict we are likely to see in the forseeable future.