Exercise seen on flight monitoring web sites reveals that the Royal Air Power’s MQ-9B Protector RG1 has been deployed to RAF Akrotiri as the kind ramps up operations to exchange the now retired MQ-9A Reaper.
Not less than two Protector RG1s have apparently been deployed to RAF Akrotiri – a UK base inside one of many small parts of British territory on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus – and have commenced flight operations over the Mediterranean Sea. The primary plane was documented by fanatics utilizing in style flight monitoring web sites on Oct. 15, 2025, with a subsequent observe up flight on Oct. 16.
This airframe, PR010, had beforehand flown from RAF Waddington within the UK and subsequently had had its id logged, permitting it to show with full info.
MNSTR31 – PR010 – 43C972 pic.twitter.com/DeQxrIBh51
— Pierre Davide Borrelli (@PierreDavideB) October 16, 2025
On Oct. 18, one other flight was famous, utilizing the callsign ASCOT 7331 (RRR7331), working over the Mediterranean Sea south of Cyprus at or round 25,000 toes. The plane displayed with out sort and registration info on websites corresponding to ADS-B Alternate and Flightradar24.com, however that is widespread for newly delivered plane. Relatively than transmitting this knowledge itself, the plane transmits a six alphanumeric code, referred to as a Mode S handle or, extra colloquially, a hex code, that in concept acts as a singular airframe identifier. In lots of circumstances, these codes are assigned in consecutive blocks which permits for knowledgeable hypothesis as to the right tie-up.
The observe was first picked up at round 0355 UTC, and the plane was tracked returning to RAF Akrotiri simply earlier than 1300 UTC on Oct. 18, 2025. It used the Mode S handle 43C973, whereas the opposite airframe, which displayed with full info, used 43C972. We are able to subsequently assume with an inexpensive quantity of confidence that ASCOT 7331 was Protector RG1 airframe PR011.
RRR7331 #RAF #UAV lively south of #Cyprus. 1034z pic.twitter.com/6xOdkleA5X
— nde (@5472_nde) October 18, 2025
So far as is publicly identified, these flights are the primary for the RAF’s Protector RG1s outdoors of UK or U.S. airspace. It had already been introduced final month that preparations have been underway for the kind’s first operational deployment. On the time it was unclear how lengthy the RAF’s older MQ-9A Reaper fleet had left in service, however with the newer information that the MQ-9A was withdrawn on Sept. 30, the requirement for a fast rollout of Protector onto frontline duties grew to become very obvious.
The flight paths of the missions counsel that the plane are primarily engaged in trials and coaching, utilizing the hazard areas over the seas south of Cyprus very like the British Military’s Watchkeeper beforehand did. Operational sorties by the RAF’s Reaper fleet have been by no means identified to have been launched from Akrotiri, as a substitute flying from Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, although it does host the RAF’s everlasting detachment of Hurricane FGR4s on Operation Shader.
Some options have been made on-line that the Protector operations are linked to monitoring of Israel and, particularly, Gaza. Not less than one portion of the Oct. 18 sortie did contain a flight in the direction of this space, earlier than making an about flip and heading again in the direction of Cyprus. It will have been potential for the plane’s sensors, from altitude, to look over in the direction of Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, however the plane remained fairly distant from Gaza and it’s questionable how a lot worth may have been gained from such a brief intelligence assortment window. As a substitute, the flight path in the direction of Israel was most probably supposed to imitate what might be a possible flight path for future operational missions, following the same observe to at least one ceaselessly utilized by the RAF’s Typhoons to get to and from operational areas over Iraq and Syria.
#RAF Operation #Shader bundle heading out for one more mission. Tanker help + Hurricane(s) 0803z pic.twitter.com/VfJhN14TuC
— nde (@5472_nde) April 10, 2025
The RAF has controversially flown surveillance flights over Gaza since October 2023, which the UK Authorities says have been primarily tasked with finding hostages held by Hamas. Following the current ceasefire deal, these missions have ended.
The Protector RG1
Changing the RAF’s hard-worked Reaper fleet, the Protector RG1’s most notable distinction is its clearance by UK authorities to function in unsegregated airspace. This has permitted the plane to fly instantly from RAF Waddington and function in UK skies, which by no means occurred with the Reaper.
Protector carries the same base ISR payload to the Reaper, full with an built-in electro-optical/infrared digicam turret and multi-mode radar. Further ISR payloads ceaselessly carried by the Reaper can even, in concept, be carried by Protector, alongside new payloads underneath improvement which may see the Protector utilised for airborne early warning (AEW) and maritime patrol missions.
In UK service, the Protector will have the ability to use weapons just like the Paveway IV precision guided bomb and Brimstone missile, each extensively used inside the RAF’s air to floor weapon stock. The Reapers, as a substitute, relied upon Hellfire missiles and Paveway II bombs – neither of which noticed present use on different RAF varieties. This vastly simplifies the Protector’s potential logistics chain and would make co-locating them alongside Typhoons, for instance, at Akrotiri, a a lot easier prospect.
16 Protectors have been ordered by the RAF, and a minimum of 10 are lively both with the RAF or within the U.S. for take a look at and analysis functions. Full working functionality for the brand new sort is predicted to be declared in 2026, and this preliminary deployment is probably going one of many necessities that will need to have been fulfilled forward of that milestone.
Reaper at Waddington
An official retirement ceremony for the MQ-9A Reaper was held at RAF Waddington with Honorary Air Commodore Prince Edward, The Duke of Edinburgh, as a VIP visitor. The photographs launched from this ceremony, although, confirmed one thing very fascinating – an RAF MQ-9A Reaper on UK soil. The airframe is notably proven with its cheek-mounted ISR antennas, a modification which started showing in lots of the RAF’s official Reaper photos some years in the past.
As talked about above, RAF Reapers weren’t in a position to function usually from UK airfields, and as such they spent their total service careers abroad. It’s potential that the airframes touched down on UK soil in between operations, although this is able to have been of their air-transportable crates in a disassembled state.
The airframe on show for the ceremony seems to be ZZ202. No info has been forthcoming relating to the long run for the RAF’s Reaper airframes. If a minimum of a few of them have been moved again to the UK, there’s not solely the potential for them to be positioned into reserve, but additionally the likelihood that a minimum of one may discover its method right into a museum. Each the Imperial Battle Museum at Duxford in addition to the Royal Air Power Museum in Hendon, London, have MQ-1 Predators of their assortment, on mortgage from america. An RAF instance of an MQ-9 would little doubt be a well-liked piece in addition to a instrument to showcase the RAF’s current operations and extra trendy capabilities.
