For a development that could revolutionize air combat, the announcement was surprisingly humdrum.
In the bureaucratic language of federal contracts, the U.S. Air Force simply said that the MQ-9 Reaper drone would be getting air-to-air missiles. Or more specifically, Reaper manufacturer General Atomics would be awarded a sole-source contract that "requires development of a MQ-9 Reaper Air-to-Air Missile AVSIM capability."
AVSIM stands for aviation simulation. And presumably the only reason that the Air Force wants to simulate a drone armed with air-to-air missiles is because it actually intends to arm real drones with them.
Just how important is this? Think back to 1914, when the first airplanes were used for reconnaissance (just like today's drones began). Then a few enterprising pilots started using airplanes to drop bombs (sound familiar?), and then someone had the bright idea of installing a machine gun and attacking other aircraft. The rest is history.
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