Air Combat by Remote Control

Wall Street Journal ^ | 12 May 2008 | By BRIAN M. CARNEY

[shrinkermd]

The sniper never knew what hit him. The Marines patrolling the street below were taking fire, but did not have a clear shot at the third-story window that the sniper was shooting from. They were pinned down and called for reinforcements.

Help came from a Predator drone circling the skies 20 miles away. As the unmanned plane closed in, the infrared camera underneath its nose picked up the muzzle flashes from the window. The sniper was still firing when the Predator's 100-pound Hellfire missile came through the window and eliminated the threat.

The airman who fired that missile was 8,000 miles away, here at Creech Air Force Base, home of the 432nd air wing. The 432nd officially "stood up," in the jargon of the Air Force, on May 1, 2007. One year later, two dozen of its drones patrol the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan every hour of every day. And almost all of them are flown by two-man crews sitting in the air-conditioned comfort of a "ground control station" (GCS) in the Nevada desert

[mcshot]

I understand your concerns and share them.

[hiredhand]

On a related note...the "sniper" was definitely an idiot. Who in their right mind "pins down" anybody with first-world fighting capabilities? Did the moron think that because they were pinned down by him that he had the upper hand? Sheesh...He should have "unassed the AO" once he realized that they weren't moving. What did he think they were doing? But I'm grateful in this case that he got the Darwin Award for Stupid Terrorists.

The only time a sniper should "stay put" is if he knows that his support elements have control over the ground and the air. This guy's "support elements" obviously didn't. :-)

[Hacklehead]

I can only hope that the video becomes public.

[HossB86]

Or... as I’m fond of saying,

“nothing left but hair, teeth, and eyes...”; or,
“not enough to scrape up with a stick and a spoon.”

:D

Hoss

[pepsionice]

The interesting thing about blanketing an entire country with them....is that you have to have a real pilot (who makes in the $60-$90k range of pay) flying each one of those. The AF won’t accept the idea of a lesser ranked guy (like the Army does it)....and they currently run around and talk of the vast shortage of Predator pilots...because real pilots don’t want to fly UAVs.

[jackibutterfly]

Ick!

[devolve]

THE NIGHT STALKER

[RJS1950]

That’s always been a problem with the AF; 21st century generals with 1940s brains. Take the Predators away from the AF and let the Army and Marines have them with NCO controllers.

[CGTRWK]

It isn’t the salary of a pilot against a private that’s prohibitive, it’s the two or three million dollars they spent training the pilot to fly real planes.

Your tax dollars at work.

[BooBoo1000]

The beautiful thing about the Reaper is, it can tool around at high altitudes, for hours at a time, say 14 hours, and the enemy has not idea that the Reaper is there. I live in Las Vegas, and we are very proud of the Creech facility and the people that man the instillation

[BooBoo1000]

The beautiful thing about the Reaper is, it can tool around at high altitudes, for hours at a time, say 14 hours, and the enemy has not idea that the Reaper is there. I live in Las Vegas, and we are very proud of the Creech facility and the people that man the instillation

[dcwusmc]

PINGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

[Travis McGee]

I'd hate to see these capabilities turned against American citizens, IYKWIM...

That's a big part of my new novel. I'm even considering a Predator silhouette over the USA for the book cover.

[Travis McGee]

Snipers with a 72 virgin death wish might not be using our SOPs.

[TxAg1981]

Things sure have changed a lot since I was in the service. I'd hate to see these capabilities turned against American citizens, IYKWIM...

Exactly what I was thinking...all skirmishes are now worth engaging.

[Travis McGee]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the pilot rank irony goes even further. I believe that the actual take offs and landings are conducted by NCO’s at the local Iraqi air base, and the Predators are only “handed off” to the distant controllers when they are safely airborne.

So the “hard part” of the flying is not even done by the pilot officers, (USAF Pilots Union), that is 7,000 miles away.

[Squantos]

You are correct.......

[FDNYRHEROES]

“Nothing like the Blue Screen of Death on the instrument panels.”
Funny, that’s what the AF pilots sitting in the team chairs call it when they tell the Predator to fire the missile.
“Say goodbye Ahab, here comes the Blue Screen of Death”.

Sounds more humane than "Death by PowerPoint"...

[Travis McGee]

Evryboddy nows you ken’t hav mere inlisted swine fliyng areoplanes. It jest woodent werk. No way, no how.

[jazusamo]

Excellent! That Hellfire ruined the snipers whole day and then some. :-)

Thanks for the ping.