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Reapers Grab Their Sickles
By John
And set out to harvest bad guys.
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AP) - The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.
The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.
I picked up this story from Herky driver and fellow Zoomie blogger Lt Col Patrick, who writes:
The MQ-9 Reaper isn't your standard unmanned, slow drone flying overhead a battlefield providing videotape images to an Ops Center for decision-makers. The MQ-9 is a killing machine. A very lethal, fast weapon with the ability to loiter over at battlefield for up to 14 hours.
Speaking of slow drones, the Air Force is also pumping more Predators into the box to boost existing CAP numbers:
7/13/2007 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley is accelerating delivery of the Defense Department's December 2009 goal of 21 daily MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle combat air patrols, or CAPs, by one year.At the chief of staff's request, Air Force officials coordinated deployment actions with the Joint Staff and Central Command to increase three additional Predator CAPs, boosting full motion video and rapid strike capability to the Joint Force commander in Iraq. Two of these CAPs are expected to be active this summer or early fall.
Anyway, word on the Reapers is Afghanistan first, then Iraq. These things are going to be buzzing over Waziristan like a swarm of wasps on the 11 year old who just chucked a rock at their nest.
Here's the factsheet if you want to know more.
Ahh, all that writing and not one Blue Oyster Cult reference. Good on me.
Oh hell, alright. OPFORian Mike sent this in a couple months back, how could I not repost?
Reference here if you don't get the joke. You're also lame if you don't get the joke.
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Comments
Hey I'm famous! NOT!
I've got a FEVER, and the only prescription is MORE COWBELL.
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
It was every fighter pilot, past, present, and future, groaning in agony....
The day we have robot fighting robot is the day war becomes a strictly economic proposition.
Once again great leaps in technology happen during wartime. There's probably a great book to be written about the advances from 9/11 to present.
What? Aren't the Predators great?
Yeah, yeah... but they could use... a little more cowbell.
howdy peeps
still winning that War on terror? , found the WMA? find osama , occupied Iraq? doing nada about the most UN
breaking rulea country Isael , your buddies?
hmm somalia failed, vietnam failed. its still a mess in afghanistan.
God bless you ? for what reason should he.
aah hosted by military.com . one of the kazillion fake propaganda sites.
wait, our propaganda is fake? Does that make it truth?
Your crazy ramblings confuse me!
Afghanistan, MQ-9 Reaper Update Operational use of Reaper's advanced capabilities marks a tremendous step forward in the evolution of unmanned aerial systems. Air Force quality assurance evaluators gave a "thumbs up" to the aircraft's debut performance and have been pleased with its operation ever since.
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Well, I guess this is the beginning of the end of the leather jacket and silk scarf. *sigh*... first it was getting rid of the horse cav... now this.
War just ain't fun anymore.