Wasn’t the second one available, the first out of fuel. Couldn’t the drone running low on fuel have “landed” on the mortar team if it didn’t have a “dive bomer mode”? Not trying to be a “wise guy” but it seems like some kind of “out of box” response may have helped. If painting a laser on someone is used to make them run away, seems like a drone buzzing might cause aiming issues for a mortar team. I obviously don’t know anything about what I am asking, that is why I am asking you. Are you saying there is no way the low on fuel drone COULD have be used other than as a camera platform? If YOU were in control of the drone and saw YOUR team under fire from a mortar position, YOU would has simply flown away?
First of all, we don’t know squat about the mortar team. It seems quite unlikely to me that Ty Woods on the roof was in direct line-of-sight of a martar team at all. Mortars are indirect fire weapons, it’s their safety to NOT be in sight of the target. A spotter forward corrects fire.
We are taking a half-dozen factoids, perhaps correctly or incorrectly jotted down by a few reporters who managed to talk to some of the other evacuees from Benghazi.
I have seen this for decades and decades. Fragmentary reporter jottings spun into all-encompassing theories.
No, a Predator will not be used to crash-land on a mortar team. No way. The eye in the sky is MUCH MUCH MUCH more valuable up above, than to be thrown away on a low-odds chance at a mobile mortar team. A team which can run away or be replaced by another team somewhere else at any time.
WIthout that eye in the sky, it’s very likely NONE of the Americans would have managed to escape to freedom. Nothing else can tell the escape convoy, “Turn now! THere is a checkpoint three blocks ahead around the corner!”
Looks like the Benghazi CIA could have used one of these:
“US Army to fly Switchblade ‘kamikaze’ drones (airport defense against UAV attack?)”
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.b0b893fb04aee2445cb9d54b02462bd7.2f1&show_article=1
Weighing less than two kilos, the drone is small enough to fit into a soldier’s backpack and is launched from a tube, with wings quickly folding out as it soars into the air, according to manufacturer AeroVironment.
Powered by a small electric motor, the Switchblade transmits video in real time from overhead, allowing a soldier to identify an enemy, the company said in a press release last month.
“Upon confirming the target using the live video feed, the operator then sends a command to the air vehicle to arm it and lock its trajectory onto the target,” it said.
The drone then flies into the “target,” detonating a small explosive.
AeroVironment “Switchblade”
http://www.avinc.com/uas/small_uas/