I'm a fan of the military channel on cable, and I recall hearing somewhere that the Predator was a "developing" technology at the beinging of the war on terror. It was not even set up to carry missles at the begining of the war as best I recall, but military officials found it could be "adapted" for that purpose (as your photo readily shows it has been). Also see, The Little Predator That Could Once "adapted," military officials found Predator to be "effective" in prosecuting selected targets. I do recall Predator being used to nail a key terrorist target in Yemen (over a year ago), and I believe it has flown other missions like that, but I forget the specifics. I seem to recall the terrorist in Yemen was traveling in a car. U.S. kills al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen
Now that I think about it, didn't a Predator almost to "tag and bag" Mullah Omar in Afghanistan? This article has a great photo of a Predator showing what I believe are Hell Fires mounted. The Sky Has Eyes
Anyway, it appears our military has been putting this new little work horse through it's paces in the war on terror. It appears the Predator drone has some of the personality of that spunky little "droid," R2D2 from Star Wars.
Thank God, Ronald Raegan had the foresight to empower military planners during his Presidency with innovations that are with us to this day. Even if Predator was not a direct result of the Raegan years, R.R. certainly put us on track for advanced, military, technological developements like Predator.