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Robins Air Force Base to help maintain new intelligence drones

Robins Air Force Base, along with L3Harris technologies, will be making repairs to that MQ9 Reaper, an unmanned aerial vehicle used to collect intelligence.

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Robins Air Force Base held a ceremony today to celebrate being one of the latest bases to welcome a new aircraft intelligence system, the Reaper drone.


Robins, along with L3Harris technologies, will be making repairs to that MQ9 Reaper, an unmanned aerial vehicle used to collect intelligence.

"Continue to provide secured communications of information flow back and forth between the aircraft and where information needs to go," Chris Barkley with the 402D maintenance group said.

The reaper can support overseas strikes, surveillance, and combat search and rescue missions. Barkley says Robins will fix the systems that run the drone.

"Software needs a black box to operate and do what it does, so that's what we provide here," Barkley said. "We have the skilled workforce here in the Warner Robins area that provides the capability to repair those black boxes and send them back out in the field."

Through surveillance, the reaper takes pictures. Since the vehicle is remotely driven, being able to retrieve its information is important.

"So it is critical that that communications link between the platform and the people that are actually operating and using the pictures from the platform is maintained all through flight," Ron Fehlen with L3 Harris technology said. 

That's where Robins comes into play.

"Repairing that capability and getting it out into the field is extremely important in what's going on here as it ties forward to being able to defend our nation," he said.

Some specs about the Reaper drone: it costs $56 million and weighs 5,000lbs, and has a wingspan of 66 feet.

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