I've chosen to set the Reaper up to support our group's playstyle. It is intended to be flown, not just left to orbit. You can of course use it however you like. The way we use it maybe different than you. We have dedicated “pilots” in our teams but not every mission needs fast jets or attack helos. So having a UAV ready to provide ISR or light CAS gives our mission maker's options.

The drone uses the vanilla UAV control system. No ACE interactions etc. You need a UAV terminal to operate it. ideally the same faction etc. But if you can get close enough you can always hack it.

The intent was to make an platform that takes some degree of skill to use effectively. it is meant to be flown from the Pilot's seat. Weapons can be used from both the pilot and gunner positions but we mostly employ the weapons in the Pilot's seat. it gives use some more flexibility and accuracy… and is less arcade like.

You will need to learn how to use the weapons effectively, what the limits are and what weapon is best in what scenerio.

I have obviously not flown the M-Q9 Reaper. But it reportedly flies a lot like a more powerful Cessna 172/182 (I have over 300 hours in them), roll rate, landing, approach and cruise speeds etc.

As much as I try to get the flight model as accurate as possible the AI and engine limits always force us to make compromises. And trust me, with anything that is AI controlled in Arma3, it is always a compromise.

Flight instruments are in FEET and KNOTS!

The HUD is a mix of “Class MFD” and animated model. It is based off the actual MQ-9 interface. But obviously more limited due to engine limitations and lack of scripting.

Top Row: From the Top Left:

• Angle of Attack (Degrees)
• Heading Ribbon
• RPM (%)

Second Row: Left to right:

• Vertical Speed indicator (Ft/Min - not exactly accurate yet)
• Indicated Airspeed (Knots)
• Artificial Horizon
• Radar Altimeter (Above Ground Level)
• SEGT - Exhaust Gas Temperature - (Honestly just cosmetic. Was scripted but was not MP friendly)
• TRQ - Engine Torque - Again, just visual, tied to RPM
• FUELF - Fuel Fuselage - Mass in lbs.

Third Row: Left to right:

• FLAPS - Text indicator
• Landing Gear indicator
• Selected Weapon and Quantity available
• POS - ingame coordinates 8 figure grid
• TME - Local game time.
• TGT - Range to Target
• LAST - I can't remember what this was supposed to be. The pic i used for ref was very low res. 'LAST' is basically just the last guage.

Personally I would prefer to limit all weapons to only types cleared for use on that specific airframe. Not everyone agreed so I've opened up the options to include other weapons in the appropriate weight class that may fit on the pylons. I'm not going to add 2000lb bombs on a pylon limted at 500lbs and so on.

• AGM-114 Hellfire Series
  • AGM-114K - Laser Guided missile
  • AGM-114L - Longbow Radar Guided missile - This may have been removed as the MQ9 does not have Radar.
  • AGM-114P+ - Specifically designed for UAV use.
  • AGM-114R-9X - Flying Ginsu knife missile.
• AGM-179 JAGM - Replaceing Hellfires for longer range strike.s
• GBU-12 Paveway (500lb)
• Paveway IV (500lb) - Exclusively used by the UK Royal Air Force
• GBU-54/B JDAM (500lb) - Uses Data linked targets ONLY
• Fuel Tank - Currently cosmetic only.
• Recce Pod - Currently cosmetic only. Was used as a prop for High-value asset recovery (HVAR) missions.

• AGM-176 Griffin B - Light Weight missile. Much smaller warhead, low collateral not typically used on large Drones.
• Brimstone Series - Not strictly cleared on MQ9A Reaper. But it is on the UK's Protector RG.1 a varient of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian
• UK Paveway II (500lb) - Paveway 2 kit on a UK MK4 MC warhead.

The addon is setup to use the game's native “dynamic pylon system”. You can select the predfined weapons in the mission editor by double clicking the drone or right clicking to get the object properties up. From there you should be able to expand the Pylon Settings rollout.

You can then select any of the weapons options on the dropdown.

Weapon Selection

Weapon Delivery