New pilotless plane headed for Afghanistan

UPI ^ | 08/28/07

[nypokerface]

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army soon will deploy a faster and more lethal pilotless plane to Afghanistan and then to Iraq, it was reported Tuesday.

The Reaper flies three times as fast and can carry eight times more weapons than the Predator, the pilotless U.S. plane in use since 2001, USA Today reported.

The Reaper, with its longer range and speed, is well suited to roust Taliban fighters from Afghanistan's vast and mountainous terrain, said Brig. Gen. James Poss, director of intelligence for Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va.

Deploying to Afghanistan this fall, the Reaper squadron will start with four planes and ultimately grow to 20 planes, USA Today said.

The Reaper is expected to be in more demand than the Predators, which this year logged more than 70,000 flight hours, more than triple the total in 2003, USA Today reported.

[PAR35]

The X-45 looks to be the one the Russians copied.

[Dan(9698)]

Great story. Many thanks to your family and your son.

He was over there for three deployments, and part of his job was to keep manned aircraft off the altitude assigned to the UAVs.

He now has been assigned to Research and Development in Las Vegas. He set up the instrumentation for acceptance evaluation for this bird.

[Doug Loss]

But with all these new UCAVs coming out all over the world I’m worried that we’re going to run out of cool names for new ones within as little as fifteen years. After that they’re all be called “Edsel” or “Marvin”.

Nah, the suits will just start calling them "Predator II" or "Reaper II" and the troops will give them useful names like "toad-sticker" or something...

[stinkerpot65]

[LIConFem]

More cowbell, dude!!!

;o)

[LIConFem]

((cowbell*=cowbell)*=cowbell)++;

[LonePalm]

Don't forget my parody:

Don't Fear The Freeper

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[lowbridge]

New pilotless plane headed for Afghanistan

Elaine Dickinson: There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?

[reagan_fanatic]

I am in awe of our technological prowness.

God bless those who work behind the scenes to make it all happen.

[George W. Bush]

What a stealthy little beauty!

Strange, I thought we had a thread last month that said we had already deployed the squadron to Iraq. Maybe I misread that earlier article.

[DesScorp]

And the air force is trying to take it away from them.

[DesScorp]

"USAF wants the world to know about this beast."

Ummm, this is an Army program. The Air Force is trying to kill both this and the Navy's UCAV programs, and is demanding a monopoly on all UCAV's that can fly over Angels 3.5; not surprisingly, the sister services are telling them to shove it, and are lobbying Congress to keep USAF from getting that monopoly.

This is a pic of the Navy's carrier-launched version that's coming, the X-47B NUCAV.

[ArrogantBustard]

Ummm, this is an Army program.

Interesting ... interservice nonsense never surprises me, but in this case:

1) They interviewed the general in charge of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base. FWIW.

2) The insignia on the "Reaper", just forward of the wing root has a very "Air Force" look to it. FWIW.

3) check this out

[ArrogantBustard]

Correction ... the General is in charge of Intelligence at ACC.

[Always Independent]

I like Godzilla better.

[Alex Murphy]

Threre are plenty of UAV development activities that are public, if not common, knowledge.

[Zhangliqun]

Atlantic Coast Conference? What’s the general’s intel on the Tarheels/Bluedevils/Wolfpack hoops this year?