French Pilots qualified on General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper & send on Sahel surveillance mission soon.

French Ministry of Defense, announced today that 6 six its pilots have been qualified on General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. The three teams, from the 1/33 “Belfort” drone squadron, have been officially declared operational since November 26.

Their courses started at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, United States, since last August. They practiced on simulators with a 100 hour theoretical courses to end with 4 MQ-9 flights.

France intends to use the UAVs right away, on foreign operation in Mali an in the broader region of Sahel if the drones are delivered on time. These ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) missions should begin in January 2014 from the Niamey Air Base in Niger.