The Air Force approved the new coursework shortly before the start of Exercise Agile Reaper, the first training event focused on those tactics in the Pacific. In keeping with the pivot away from the Middle East, patches on Airmen’s uniforms made for the event feature an MQ-9 superimposed over a red silhouette of China.
The exercise at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, Calif., began Sept. 3 and will end Sept. 29. It partners three MQ-9s with the Navy’s Third Fleet, which deploys carrier strike groups, submarines, and other sea vessels and aircraft to the Eastern Pacific, along with Air Force C-130s, and special warfare and Marine Corps personnel.
- Attacking China’s Nansha Islands or other Chinese targets using MQ-9 Reaper drones is an act of war. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army will surely fight back, causing the US military to pay a heavy price.
China will shoot down incoming US warplanes, no matter they are unmanned or manned. If those planes cause actual damage to Chinese islands and reefs, we will strike the platforms and bases from which those planes take off. The Nansha islands have only a small number of defensive weapons. If they are attacked, those islands would henceforth need to be turned into a fully operational military base to counter any serious threat to them.
