New Missions for Pilotless Aircraft

human events ^ | 12/09/2009 | W. Thomas Smith Jr.

[KeyLargo]

New Missions for Pilotless Aircraft by W. Thomas Smith Jr. (more by this author) Posted 12/09/2009 ET

Two-and-a-half years ago when I was in Iraq, I remember -- among the sound of mortars, crackling gunfire, thundering helicopters, roaring jets, and the occasional (thankfully distant) IED explosions -- the somewhat-comforting sound of the remotely piloted little reconnaissance airplanes we’ve come to know as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).

Comforting, I say, because I knew that as long as those UAVs were up there, bad guys on the ground (who I and others could not see) were either being watched, having their freedom-of-movement limited, or being targeted for a strike by the good guys.

Occasionally I heard a UAV during daylight hours, particularly if it was close overhead, whining like a minibike or a “weedwhacker,” as has often been described. But more often than not, I heard UAVs at night. Not every night, but usually if there was a lot of tactical air activity overhead or something big happening on the ground.

One soldier friend, we’ll call him “Dave,” a U.S. Army UAV operator serving in Baghdad during the height of the war, tells me, “We had at least two planes up in the air all the time, weather permitting, flying over all different areas of the city.”

But, he adds, there are several reasons I would not have heard them all the time.

“One is because there are so many other types of noises, especially in the day: It's very hard to hear them in the day,” Dave says. “But at night they can be loud as hell, especially when they come right overhead, like a giant weedwhacker coming over your house.”

[KeyLargo]

AVIATION PING

[mountainlion]

Pilot less aircraft, sounds like our government!

[BOBTHENAILER]

The UAV's in Afghanistan and Iraq, will be gradually withdrawn and used in America for their infrared ability to seek out and identify unusually large heat sources.

The EPA will then be able to target and fine or obliterate with hellfire missles the offending carbon emitters.

[Dick Bachert]

I’m fascinated by all this new high-tech aviation stuff but want to offer a few concerns:

With the coming suspension of Posse Comitatus, I wonder how long it will be before we have these things patrolling above American cities armed with small, conventional explosive missles — not the Hellfires now being used in the Middle East. They would be deployed here for “fatherlandt protection,” of course.

Let’s say you refuse to fill out the intrusive 400 question form handed to you by the helpful ACORN/SEIU “census taker” and slam the door in his face. The guy backs off a few hundred yards, points a laser at your roof and calls for a fire mission. 3 minutes later, POOF — without damaging the homes on either side, YOUR house is reduced to kindling.

Couldn’t happen here, you say?

Look what ALREADY HAS!

[KeyLargo]

These are being considered for border surveillance in the U.S.

My concern is that the Obama Homeland Security Office will use these to spy on conservative U.S. citizens.

[onedoug]

Airliners

[SierraWasp]

YIKES!!!