Jane's reports that the US Air Force has received two prototypes of the new Predator B UAV. Evaluations will begin soon to determine how well they perform. The new version of the Predator is faster, has a higher operational ceiling, longer endurance, and larger payload capacity. The original Predator went into service in 1994 and an upgraded version called the Predator RQ-1B was created in 1998. Recently the Air Force began arming some of the robotic planes with missles.