Exercise seen on flight monitoring web sites reveals that the Royal Air Drive’s MQ-9B Protector RG1 has been deployed to RAF Akrotiri as the sort ramps up operations to interchange the now retired MQ-9A Reaper.
A minimum of 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 fans utilizing standard flight monitoring web sites on Oct. 15, 2025, with a subsequent comply with 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 reminiscent of ADS-B Change and Flightradar24.com, however that is widespread for newly delivered plane. Slightly than transmitting this knowledge itself, the plane transmits a six character alphanumeric code, often called a Mode S deal with or, extra colloquially, a hex code, that in concept acts as a novel 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 monitor 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 deal with 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 energetic 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 exterior of UK or U.S. airspace. It had already been introduced final month that preparations have been underway for the sort’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the RAF’s older MQ-9A Reaper fleet had left in service, however with the more moderen information that the MQ-9A was withdrawn on Sept. 30, the requirement for a fast rollout of Protector onto frontline duties grew to become very obvious.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 recommend that the plane are primarily engaged in trials and coaching, utilizing the hazard areas over the seas south of Cyprus very similar to 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 Storm FGR4s on Operation Shader.
Some recommendations have been made on-line that the Protector operations are linked to monitoring of Israel and, particularly, Gaza. A minimum of one portion of the Oct. 18 sortie did contain a flight in direction of this space, earlier than making an about flip and heading again in direction of Cyprus. It could have been attainable for the plane’s sensors, from altitude, to look over in direction of Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, however the plane remained fairly distant from Gaza and it’s questionable how a lot worth might have been gained from such a brief intelligence assortment window. As an alternative, the flight path in direction of Israel was most definitely meant to imitate what could possibly be a possible flight path for future operational missions, following an analogous monitor to at least one steadily utilized by the RAF’s Typhoons to get to and from operational areas over Iraq and Syria.
#RAF Operation #Shader package deal heading out for one more mission. Tanker assist + Storm(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 straight from RAF Waddington and function in UK skies, which by no means occurred with the Reaper.
Protector carries an analogous base ISR payload to the Reaper, full with an built-in electro-optical/infrared digicam turret and multi-mode radar. Extra ISR payloads steadily carried by the Reaper can even, in concept, be carried by Protector, alongside new payloads beneath growth which might 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 no less than 10 are energetic both with the RAF or within the U.S. for check and analysis functions. Full working functionality for the brand new sort is anticipated to be declared in 2026, and this preliminary deployment is probably going one of many necessities that should 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 pictures launched from this ceremony, although, confirmed one thing very attention-grabbing – 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 most of the RAF’s official Reaper pictures 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 whole service careers abroad. It’s attainable that the airframes touched down on UK soil in between operations, although this may 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 concerning the longer term for the RAF’s Reaper airframes. If no less than 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 chance that no less than one may discover its approach right into a museum. Each the Imperial Struggle Museum at Duxford in addition to the Royal Air Drive Museum in Hendon, London, have MQ-1 Predators of their assortment, on mortgage from the US. An RAF instance of an MQ-9 would little question be a well-liked piece in addition to a instrument to showcase the RAF’s current operations and extra fashionable capabilities.
