on August 7 a U.S. MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) crashed in the district of Radwaniyah west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
The U.S.-led coalition acknowledged that that one of its drone made “an unscheduled landing” in Baghdad due to what it described as “a mechanical problem.”
The U.S. military’s spokesman for operations in Iraq and Syria has confirmed that a coalition Unmanned Aerial Vehicle made an unscheduled landing in Baghdad Wednesday due to a mechanical problem.
“The aircraft landed safely and was successfully recovered by Iraqi Security Force troops. No one was injured and no property was damaged in the landing or recovery,” a spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, said on Friday.
No further details on the type of aircraft have been released, but local media have released photo showed the crashed MQ-1C unmanned aircraft in a field.
The Gray Eagle crashed southwest of Baghdad on farmland in the town of Radwaniyah, Iraq’s pro-Iran Buratha News Agency reported, citing a local source.
The undamaged drone was quickly moved to an unknown location, and could have come down due to electronic interference or have been intercepted by a cyber-attack, the source suggested.
Photos of the Gray Eagle’s wreckage show that it was equipped with two dual launchers, which indicates that it may have been armed with four AGM-114 Hellfire laser-guided missiles.
Contrary to the U.S.-led coalition’s claims, Iraqi sources said that the UCAV crashed as a result of an electronic attack. These claims have not been confirmed, so far.
The General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle is a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aircraft system (UAS). It was developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for the United States Army as an upgrade of the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator.
The U.S. Army’s website said the MQ-1C Gray Eagle provides the warfighter with dedicated, assured, multimission UAS capabilities across all 10 Army divisions to support commanders’ combat operations and Army Special Forces and Intelligence and Security Command.
