Why are Ukrainian pilots not interested in US "battle killer" UAVs?

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Kiev pilots seem to think that the American Gray Eagle UAV is not suitable for the Ukrainian battlefield, even though it is considered a modern and powerful weapon.


According to Reuters , the US recently halted a plan to sell four MQ-1C "Gray Eagle" unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Ukraine because of concerns that advanced reconnaissance technology and equipment would fall into the hands of the Russian military.

However, according to Foreign Policy , the equipment that Ukrainian servicemen really want from the US is not the aforementioned modern UAVs, but fighters like the F-15 and F-16 because these aircraft have higher chance of survival against Russian air defense.

A Ukrainian pilot commented that the "Gray Eagle" UAVs will be vulnerable to Russian shields and difficult to "change the game" as some experts previously said.

"We do not support Gray Eagles. It is very dangerous to deploy these expensive UAVs in Ukraine because of the threat posed by adversary air defense systems. This is Ukraine, not Afghanistan," said one of the pilots. Kiev told Foreign Policy.

The MQ-1C Gray Eagle is the latest in a line of attack drones from contractor General Atomics. It was used in the US counterterrorism campaign from Afghanistan and Iraq to Somalia and Yemen. It is armed with Hellfire missiles, which have a range of about 8 km - shorter than the Switchblade or Phoenix Ghost suicide drones that the US sent to Ukraine.

Another Ukrainian pilot said the Gray Eagle could be effective, but would not likely survive more than two missions. Each of these UAVs costs about 10 million USD.

According to Ukrainian pilots, Kiev effectively used the TB2 UAVs purchased from Turkey in the early stages of hostilities. TB2 costs 2 million USD / unit. However, these UAVs have now become less effective as Russia strengthens its air defenses in the Ukrainian battlefield. Kiev has also reduced the frequency of dispatching this UAV to participate in combat.

In addition, the pilots said that now the number of pilots in the Ukrainian air force is more than the number of aircraft and they want to be trained to use fighters like the US F-15 and F-16 because they will more survivable against the Russian S-400.

MQ-1C weighs 2 tons, uses propeller-driven engines and has a wingspan of 17m. The strong point of the "battlefield killer" MQ-1C is the "inferno" missile - the main weapon of the powerful UAV. Each UAV can carry 8 missiles of this type.

With a mass of about 50 kg, a cylindrical warhead weighing 18 kg, Hellfire is a surface-to-surface or air-to-ground missile, capable of penetrating armor. Hellfire can be used for multi-mission or multi-target attacks. With the ability to accurately guide, the missile can destroy the target even when it is not within the range of the weapon. The Hellfire missile has a laser guidance mechanism.

The MQ-1C can fly for half a day or more, depending on the weapon it carries. 

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