UK launches global MQ-9B drone users’ club for allies
LONDON – The U.K. has been discreetly building a global MQ-9B operators club in Europe open to NATO and non-NATO members operating or interested in acquiring the long-range drone that will be granted training access at an in-country flight facility.
On July 20, the Royal Air Force announced the creation of a new MQ-9 International Cooperation Support Partnership, or MIC SP, formed under the NATO Support and Procurement Agency, or NSPA, that builds on a previous similar U.K.-led project.
“The MQ-9B International Cooperative Program was established in 2019 and the work to determine the best way forward to enhance cooperation was done in 2023/24 with the conclusion that NSPA and a MIC SP delivered the best path,” an RAF spokesman for the program told Defense News.
The drone program is growing rapidly, the spokesman said, as it initially included six nations and now comprises ten.
“In April 2023, MICP nations were Belgium and the U.K. as participants (to the memorandum of understanding); with Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, and Norway as observers — since then, we have added Qatar and Sweden as observers,” he said.