Reaper vs Predator: How the MQ-9 Outgrew the Drone It Replaced

The MQ-9 Reaper is the better drone on every measure, and it is not close. It is a bigger, turboprop-powered development of the MQ-1 Predator that carries about 8 times the payload, flies twice as high and about twice as fast, and replaced the Predator in U.S. Air Force service on March 9, 2018.

The two are easy to mix up. General Atomics builds both, they share the same long wing and pusher propeller, and the company still calls the Reaper the “Predator B.”

The Predator is retired from the Air Force. The Reaper is still flying, though its 2026 losses in the war with Iran are pushing the service toward a cheaper successor.

Every figure below comes from the Air Force’s own fact sheets for the MQ-1B and the MQ-9, with General Atomics’ figures where the Air Force no longer lists one.

The Difference in One Line: the Reaper Is an Armed-First Predator

The Predator was built to watch. It entered service as the RQ-1, the “R” standing for reconnaissance, and only became the multi-role MQ-1 in 2002, when the Air Force added the AGM-114 Hellfire missile.

The Reaper was built to strike. General Atomics started the Predator B as a company-funded project in 1999 and flew it in 2001. The Air Force describes it as designed “to execute time-sensitive targets with persistence and precision, and destroy or disable those targets.”

Both still list intelligence collection as their primary job. The difference is how much the Reaper can carry when it finds something, and that comes down to the engine.

Size and Power: a 115-hp Piston vs a 900-shp Turboprop

The Predator flies on a 115-horsepower Rotax 914F, a four-cylinder piston engine. The Reaper uses a Honeywell TPE331-10GD turboprop rated at up to 900 shaft horsepower, 7.8 times as much.

That power buys weight. A loaded Reaper can take off at 10,500 pounds (4,760 kg), 4.7 times the Predator’s 2,250 pounds (1,020 kg). Its wing grows less than you might expect, from 55 feet (16.8 m) to 66 feet (20.1 m).

The Reaper’s real gain is what it can lift: 3,750 pounds (1,701 kg) of payload against the Predator’s 450 pounds (204 kg). That 8.3 to 1 ratio is the single biggest gap between the two aircraft, and it is the reason the Reaper replaced the Predator rather than flying alongside it.

Weapons: Two Hellfires vs a Mixed Bomb Load

An armed Predator carries two laser-guided Hellfire missiles. That is the whole load.

The Air Force lists the Reaper with up to eight Hellfires, or a mix of missiles and bombs: the GBU-12 Paveway II and GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II laser-guided bombs, and the GBU-38 and GBU-54 versions of the Joint Direct Attack Munition. It also carries a synthetic aperture radar, which the Predator’s Air Force fact sheet does not list.

Reapers have been linked to the most famous drone strikes of the past decade. The New York Times reported that an MQ-9 fired the missiles that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani outside Baghdad’s airport on January 3, 2020.

The July 31, 2022 strike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul is often credited to a Reaper too, but that is an inference. The U.S. never named the drone; security experts told C4ISRNET a Reaper “makes the most sense,” and a senior official said two Hellfires were fired.

Altitude, Speed and Range

The Predator cruises at about 84 mph (135 km/h) and tops out at 135 mph (217 km/h), with a ceiling of 25,000 feet (7,620 m). General Atomics rates the Reaper at 240 knots true airspeed, about 276 mph (444 km/h), and up to 50,000 feet (15,240 m).

Range grows the least. The Air Force lists 770 miles (1,240 km) for the Predator and 1,150 miles (1,850 km) for the Reaper, or 1,611 miles (2,590 km) for the extended-range version, which hangs external tanks holding 1,300 pounds of extra fuel.

What matters more is time on station. General Atomics says the Reaper can stay up for more than 27 hours, or 34 hours with its wing fuel pods. A Predator could fly about 460 miles (740 km) to a target, loiter for 14 hours and return.

What They Share: Two Crew and a Satellite Link

Neither aircraft carries anyone. Each is flown by a crew of two in a ground control station: a rated pilot who flies the aircraft and commands the mission, and an enlisted sensor operator who runs the cameras and guides the weapons.

Both use the same split. A small launch and recovery crew near the runway handles takeoff and landing over a line-of-sight radio link. Once the aircraft is up, a crew based in the United States takes over through a satellite link and flies the rest of the mission.

Both also carry a Multi-Spectral Targeting System under the nose, which combines infrared and daylight cameras with a laser designator. The Reaper’s MTS-B adds a shortwave infrared camera.

How to Tell a Predator From a Reaper

Look at the tail. The Predator’s two tail fins angle downward in an upside-down V, with a third fin under the propeller. The Reaper’s fins angle upward in a normal V, with a small fin hanging below.

Then look at the size and the wings. A Reaper stands 12.5 feet (3.8 m) tall to the Predator’s 7 feet (2.1 m), and an armed Reaper usually hangs several missiles or bombs under each wing.

The family has more members than these two, which is part of the confusion. Our guide to the different types of drones sorts them by size and job.

Service History: From the Balkans to Iran

The Predator shape did not disappear with the Air Force’s last flight. The Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle is a direct descendant, and export versions flew with other air forces.

Has a Reaper Ever Been Shot Down?

Yes, and the count is climbing. The best-documented case came over the Black Sea on March 14, 2023, when a Russian Su-27 struck a Reaper’s propeller and U.S. forces had to bring it down in international waters, according to U.S. European Command.

The war with Iran in 2026 cost far more, though how each aircraft was lost is not public.

The Air Force has not disclosed its losses. An August 13, 2026 report citing three U.S. officials said the military had lost “at least 45” Reapers. That is the largest single entry in the Congressional Research Service tally of US aircraft lost or damaged in the Iran war.

None of this surprised the Air Force. In its 2021 and 2022 budget requests it said the Reaper “was not designed for operation in a future highly contested environment,” and it had already been retiring older Block 1 aircraft.

General Atomics has already pitched its answer to that competition, a clean-sheet drone called Wildfire, built to be bought in numbers and flown on missions where losses are expected.

Which Is Better: Reaper or Predator?

The Reaper, by every number in the table. It lifts more than eight times the payload, flies twice as high, carries bombs as well as missiles and stays up for more than a day. The Air Force answered the question itself when it retired the Predator in 2018.

The Predator’s claim is different: it came first. It proved that a crew in the United States could find and hit a target on the other side of the world, and the Reaper is that idea scaled up. For the rest of the field, see our ranking of the best military drones in the world.

The Reaper’s own weakness is the one it shares with its parent. Neither was built to survive a defended sky, and 2026 is when that stopped being a theoretical problem.