Politico: The Pentagon hesitates to transfer Reaper drones to Kyiv due to the risk of technology leakage

The US Air Force considered transferring old Reaper attack drones to Kiev in the spring, but after several months of internal disputes, the Pentagon has not made a decision, Politico writes, citing four people familiar with the matter.

Reaper deliveries to Ukraine have not been made due to concerns about the transfer of secret technologies to Ukraine and that some of the drones are “almost certain” to be shot down and could fall into the hands of the Russian military, the sources said. The publication recalls that Kyiv uses Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, which “become a target for Russian air defense systems and electronic warfare.” This raised concerns at the Pentagon about how “American drones would perform in such an environment.”

The Pentagon and manufacturer General Atomics (the Reaper and Gray Eagle drones) continue to make efforts so that one or both of the drones can be transferred to Kyiv, the newspaper notes.

Recall that in mid-November, CNN reported that the United States could modify Gray Eagle MQ-1 °C drones armed with Hellfire missiles using technical “tricks and truncations”, which would allow them to be transferred to Ukraine without the risk of technology leakage. The fact that Washington refrains from supplying Gray Eagle drones to Ukraine because of the risk of cutting-edge technologies falling into Russia’s possession was reported, in particular, by The Wall Street Journal.