# News Source Record

**L-Ne / Open-source news extract** — Original media coverage of unmanned aerial systems.

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Collection date | 7 February 2010 |
| Platform | Quiet Systems |
| Data label | Open-source news record // LRRK collection product |
| Handling | Public-source material. Image rights require separate verification before publication. |
| Scale | National |
| Language | English |
| Terms matched | drones; Reaper; UAV; UAVs; Predator; unmanned |

## Bibliographic

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Outlet | The Guardian |
| Title | RAF 'relying' on drones in Afghanistan |
| Dateline | United Kingdom |
| First publisher | yes |
| Original URL | https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/07/raf-drones-afghanistan |
| Archive URL | — |
| Dedup key | 2010-02-07|the-guardian|raf-reaper-afghanistan-mod-foi |
| Source grade | A1 |

## Record

**Verified extract — [Fact — A1]** The Guardian reported Ministry of Defence figures, obtained after a freedom-of-information request by Chris Cole of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, that the RAF had fired 84 missiles from Reaper drones since they were first deployed in Afghanistan in June 2008, more than 20 in the previous two months. Reapers launch from Kandahar and are flown by about 90 RAF personnel at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada. Once a target is identified, remote controllers can fire two 500lb laser-guided bombs and four Hellfire missiles. The RAF said it would double the Reaper total over two years. The MoD said there had been no reports of RAF drones killing civilians and that firing rules "are no different to those used for manned combat aircraft." The paper said the MoD bought an initial batch of six General Atomics Reapers at a reported cost of £6m; one crashed in Afghanistan in 2008 in what defence secretary Bob Ainsworth called "a forced landing."

**Kinematic object.** RAF MQ-9 Reaper (General Atomics), Hellfire and 500lb laser-guided bombs; launched at Kandahar, flown from Creech.

**Coverage frame.** military

## Source integrity

- Why this is treated as an original: UK national paper using MoD figures from an FoI request and named campaigner quotes.
- Wire reprint status: Not a wire reprint.
- What was excluded: the July war-logs Reaper feature (separate story-identity).

## LRRK relevance

Campaign / Control Fabric / Watch. A Watch desk would have recorded RAF remote-kill tempo (84 missiles since 2008) and the Creech–Kandahar split of launch versus control.

*LRRK — security assurance for systems that sense, move, and act.*

L-Ne