Out with the Predator; In with the Grimm Reaper?

The Air Force is not buying any more UAV's known as Predator drones because the Grimm Reaper drone will phase them out. The Air Force has officially completed its scheduled purchase of (268) UAV Predator drones from manufacturer General Atomics. But, that doesn’t mean the end of the Predator. The Air Force will continue to fly the UAV Predator drones it has already bought. But it does mean the beginning of the end. Lt. Col. Richard Johnson, an Air Force spokesman, "We're taking delivery of our last Predator." "We're not replacing the Predator with the Reaper," Johnson says, "but as the [Predator] fleet diminishes by attrition, we'll phase in the Reaper." The Grimm Reaper flies twice as fast as the Predator. It also flies at higher altitudes. And it carries ten times more bombing payload then the Predator can. The Grimm Reaper was first used in 2007. So far, the Air Force has (57) of the drones and plans to buy another (272). Many of the drones are already in Afghanistan. Air Force officers pilot them from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. WikiLeaks has released documents showing that Arabia and Turkey have already submitted plans on purchasing armed Grimm Reapers from General Atomics and so far they got the State Departments approval to sell the unarmed version of the Predator as surveillance aircraft to non-NATO countries like Pakistan, Egypt and Arabia.

The Grimm Reaper has already received a new modification. General Atomics rolled out it's post-Reaper drone, the faster, stealthier Avenger. Just as the Grimm Reaper takes over for the Predator, the first modifications for the Avenger technology have started breaking ground.