The ability to land on a surface other than a perfectly smooth, paved airstrip is a rare and valuable commodity in combat. Of course, specialty aircraft like the AV-8B Harrier II ‘Jump Jet’ and Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II already exist, but the U.S. Air Force recently confirmed primitive landing capability in a much larger swath of aircraft. In a June 15 Air Force training exercise near Fort Stockton in Texas, an MQ-9 drone — better known by its nickname ‘Reaper’ — successfully landed
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