MQ-1 Predator

The MQ-1 Predator is an American remotely piloted aircraft built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, originally designed for surveillance and reconnaissance, and it entered United States military service in 1995. The airframe was subsequently modified to carry weapons, most notably two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, transforming a reconnaissance platform into an armed strike aircraft capable of both watching and engaging a target without risking a human pilot. The Predator was deployed extensively across a wide range of conflicts, including the war in Afghanistan, operations in Pakistan and Yemen, the NATO intervention in Bosnia, the Iraq War, the 2011 Libyan civil war, the intervention in Syria from 2014 and operations in Somalia. The United States Air Force retired the MQ-1 Predator in 2018, replacing it with the larger and more capable MQ-9 Reaper, but the type's success established the armed remotely piloted aircraft as a lasting category of modern military weapon system.