I stand corrected. By myself.
The "obturating band" is missing from this projectile. The obturating band is a brass ring that forms a seal with the lands and grooves of the cannon when the projectile is fired so that the gasses of the propellant charge all go to moving the round out of the cannon instead of leaking around the projectile. It's kind of an efficiency thing that increases accuracy.
In any case, the one on this projo is missing, indicating it's been fired. Since this is a base-ejecting round, I'm guessing this round was fired and functioned properly (OK, the thing that looks like a broken shipping plug is actually the remnants of the fuze - a closer look would have told me the color is all wrong to have been a shipping plug). What you're looking at is an empty cannister that's designed to kick 'sub munitions' out the back end, but not designed to explode itself.
This was found after a battle somewhere else. It could still be used as a training aid in an IED factory. It's clearly adequate for propaganda uses. Can't say I blame the AQ duds for picking it up in the hopes it would come in handy some day...
Thanks again.
Thank you for your analysis.
Have you heard anything 'official' from any US government website?
The corresponding article about the Pak forces being in a firefight that same night in the same area really causes doubt on the prevailing spin.
It would not be out of character for the whole Predator scenario to be fabricated.