RAAF Wants to Buy Reaper UAV

The RAAF Chief says he would like Australia to buy armed Reaper drones – the kind used by the US to kill insurgents in Afghanistan – as soon as five years from now.
The drones, can carry out surveillance missions and can also carry weapons such as Hellfire missiles.
The purchase could happen within five years.
The Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency’s drone campaigns in the Middle East and South Asia have attracted controversy both in the region and in the US. Critics say the strikes have killed too many civilians and constitute remote-controlled killing often in areas that are not actually war zones. While the numbers are unclear, the US Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which tracks media reports of drone strikes, says there were more than 1000 drone strikes in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2012. The bureau also says up to 4225 people including 1042 civilians have been killed by drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
The Reaper is a larger and more modern drone than the earlier Predator.

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