Either the hierarchy is very flat, or the captured 'leaders' are trying an 'I am Spartacus' deal.
I am not comparing Osama Bin Laden with Spartacus. Spartacus was a slave who wanted freedom. Bin Laden wants the rest of the world to be his slaves.
Posted on 07/18/2007 10:10:35 AM PDT by RDTF
WASHINGTON - A Raytheon Co. satellite-guided artillery shell, the first weapon of its kind, killed a top al- Qaeda leader in Iraq, the U.S. military said. The firing of two new 155mm “Excalibur” shells was part of a combined Army and Air Force assault July 14 on a meeting house in Arab Jabour south of Baghdad directed against the leader, Abu Jurah, and 14 associates, U.S. forces said today. Raytheon, the world’s biggest missile maker and Southern Arizona’s largest employer, developed the Excalibur with Bofors Defence of Sweden. The statement e-mailed from Baghdad said Abu Jurah was “the top target” in al-Qaeda south of Baghdad, responsible for a terrorist cell that made improvised roadside bombs and suicide vehicle bombs and fired mortars at U.S. troops.
The attack marked the U.S. military’s first acknowledgement that the new precision-guided weapon has been used in Iraq. In combat testing before deployment, the weapon demonstrated accuracy within 20 feet (6 meters) of its target, a precision designed to minimize civilian casualties and accidental U.S. military deaths in a war that is increasingly urban. An unguided 155mm shell can miss its target by as much as 900 feet or 280 meters. The Excalibur has a 50-pound warhead. The Army wanted a weapon with a much smaller warhead than the 200- pound charge on its only precision guided ground-based mobile rocket system, officials said. Abu Jurah was killed by troops from the Army’s 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, who fired the two Excalibur shells, destroying the meeting house, the statement said.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at azstarnet.com ...
I wonder if this is part of the Rumsfeld doctrine...quick actions with smaller units on the ground that can find a need, get it filled, and kill the enemy.
Or was this missile in the normal, top down heavy bureaucratic procurement pipeline?
Putting aside the fact that this weapon would be used very sparingly, what would you pay a hit man to kill an Al Qaida guy who directs the killing of American troops? How about if one of these shells kills one of those guys who blows up schoolbuses and police recruitment lines?
39K is a bargain.
I’ve always wondered; why are there no GOP in Congress using CSPAN and those nightly talkfest they like to do (to an empty chamber) and telling us of what is going on in the war?
Read the reports the Drive-bys won’t!
Al Qaida would like to know that too, so it won't be revealed. It's really pointless to ask.
Good work, Roger and Rosie Riveters. (I know, I know, wrong war. Come up with something better, if you can).
Nice to know about all the hands on deck who are turning out high-tech war materiel for our valiant guys and gals at the various fronts.
To the freeper who posted earlier about the warm fuzzies felt upon reading this news, I join you in warm fuzziness.
Do we have any freepers who work for Raytheon? If so, please present your right and left cheek for an appropriate "thank you" from this grateful freeper.
Leni
Either the hierarchy is very flat, or the captured 'leaders' are trying an 'I am Spartacus' deal.
I am not comparing Osama Bin Laden with Spartacus. Spartacus was a slave who wanted freedom. Bin Laden wants the rest of the world to be his slaves.
You mean dead, don’t you? To include all the brain washed idiots that will wear bomb vests or drive the vehicles. If he has his way, by the time he is done there will only be a select few nutcase radicals left in the world.
wish we had the video
My tax dollars well spent. Nice shootin Tex.
Thanks for the awesome video...
$39,000 a piece.... !
“Peace through superior fire power.” and superior economic power.
Interesting... I read a technothriller about 3 months ago where just such an artillery shell was featured, described, and used in the plot. The name of this "smart artillery shell" was, oddly enough, "Excalibur"...
the infowarrior
Less bang for the buck?
“Landshark!”
Rank speculation on my part. The Battlekings have Paladins and this was a 155mm shell. That’s all I know.
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