Netherlands To Buy 4 Reaper Drones

The Netherlands is buying four MQ-9 Reaper medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from United States, Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told the parliament in a statement on Thursday. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"18368","attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full wp-image-9845","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"300","height":"212","alt":"Reaper Drone"}}]] Reaper Drone / Flickr

The unmanned aircrafts will be bought off the shelf and should be fully operational at the end of 2017, Aviation Week reports. The UAVs will be used to gather information in support of higher command levels than the tactical level currently covered by Dutch Raven and Scan Eagle UAVs. Also, these aircrafts will support civilian authorities in such tasks as disaster response and counternarcotics. According to Hennis-Plasschaert, the Dutch Reapers will be unarmed.