Dr. Black
Nov 12 2004, 07:50 PM
Just read this on MSN.
UAV in FallujahPretty cool. Now they just need a rigger.
mfb
Nov 12 2004, 08:13 PM
heh. you must've missed the news, six months back or so, when a Predator UAV blew up one of the face-card Iraqis with a missile.
Austere Emancipator
Nov 13 2004, 12:36 AM
| QUOTE (http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/predator.htm) |
| A CIA-controlled Predator firing a Hellfire missile was used to kill six suspected al-Qa'ida terrorists in Yemen on November 3, 2002. This marked the first use of an armed Predator as an attack aircraft outside of a theater of war such as Afghanistan. |
| QUOTE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RQ-1_Predator) |
| On February 7, 2002, an armed Predator attacked a convoy of sport utility vehicles, killing a suspected al Qaeda leader. |
They certainly are handy little buggers. Paving the way for serious combat UAVs.
mfb
Nov 13 2004, 01:10 AM
you know what's really, really funny? normally, if it flies at all, there's an officer at the controls. militaries think officers get +2 to their Responsibility checks, or something stupid like that. but the guys flying these Predators and Predators are low-ranking enlisted soldiers. a US Marine Lance Corporal is an E-3. i came into the Army as a damn E-3!
Modesitt
Nov 13 2004, 05:23 AM
| QUOTE |
(perspective- my job is watching live predator feeds for the air force)
I've never seen people running away shortly before a guided bomb impact. Whether this is because they're silent or because they're supersonic (or nearly so) is unknown to me.
Hellfire missles, OTOH, are subsonic, and have noisy rocket motors attached, which leads to an ever so pleasing, "Run, bitch! Run!" effect shortly before impact. |
Digital Heroin
Nov 13 2004, 06:08 AM
| QUOTE (Austere Emancipator) |
| They certainly are handy little buggers. Paving the way for serious combat UAVs. |
You don't call a near silent unmanned Hellfire delivery system serious?
On the subject of officers, there is a reason it's good to be an NCM in the Canadian Air Force... we send all our officers off to do the actual fighting.
mfb
Nov 13 2004, 07:33 AM
same with our air force, as well as army, navy, and marine air assets. i just think it's hilarious that the guys flying these superadvanced high-tech toys are lance corporals.
DrJest
Nov 13 2004, 11:55 AM
| QUOTE |
| i just think it's hilarious that the guys flying these superadvanced high-tech toys are lance corporals. |
Judgin by some of the smegs I met who wanted to go into Sandhurst, bloody right you want to give it to the enlisted lads...*
(following me performing a flute sonata)
"What was that?"
"Handel."
"What kind of handle?"
- Seriously, a conversation I had with a prospective officer cadet <shudders>
(*Yes, all right, I know that the vast majority of officers are quite decent and intelligent people. But sometimes you gotta wonder)
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