MQ-9 Reaper Remotely Piloted Aircraft Grim Reaper Patch

On October 28, 2007, an MQ-9 fired a Hellfire missile at insurgents in the Deh Rawood area of Oruzgan province, Afghanistan, the type's first kill. The aircraft had reached initial operating capability that same month. It was built to hunt as well as watch, a step past the MQ-1 Predator that came before it. The Air Force had called it Predator B before it took the name Reaper. This patch puts that name and the hooded figure behind it on one round field.

The designation explains the job: M for multi-role, Q for remotely piloted aircraft system, and 9 for the ninth in the series. It is operated by a crew of two, a rated pilot and an enlisted sensor operator, from a ground control station that can be thousands of miles from the aircraft. A Honeywell TPE331-10GD turboprop powers it, and the wings span 66 feet on a 36-foot airframe. The Reaper can carry up to 3,750 pounds of payload, including AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bombs and GBU-38 JDAMs. The 432nd Wing was activated at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, on May 1, 2007, to fly the MQ-1 and MQ-9.

The patch is a 4 inch circle with a black merrowed border around a tan field. MQ-9 is stitched in black across the top. A gray Reaper with long straight wings crosses the center over a sweeping red banner, with a blue and white globe behind it and a gray Moon in the clouds at upper left. Below, a skull in a black hood with red war marks over the eyes raises a red staff in a bony hand. REAPER curves up the lower right edge, its first letter tucked behind the hood. It has a sew-on backing.

Reaper crews fight a long war in shifts. They have flown over Iraq, Afghanistan and other theaters, then drive home through the Nevada desert and come back for the next sortie. The sensor operators, pilots, intelligence analysts and maintainers who keep an orbit running around the clock rarely get the attention that fighter squadrons do. Their work has supported troops on the ground through some of the longest operations in Air Force history. The hooded reaper on this patch is the shorthand they use for that job.

It fits a shadow box beside a squadron coin and a photo from Creech, or the sleeve of a flight jacket worn to a squadron reunion. It also makes a good gift for a pilot, sensor operator or maintainer who flew the Reaper. One aircraft, one name, and the figure that goes with it.