Posted on 06/06/2008 9:53:52 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
The RAF has used an unmanned drone to kill a Taliban leader for the first time, the Mail has learned.
Two 'pilots', controlling the robot via satellite from an airbase outside Las Vegas, spotted a target thousands of miles away in southern Afghanistan.
They ordered the £10million Reaper drone to carry out an airstrike.
Sources at the Ministry of Defence said the strike, which took place in the last ten days, killed a 'high value' Taliban target, but officials would not confirm the insurgent's identity.
The attack marks a symbolic watershed in Britain's use of military airpower.
Many in the Armed Forces believe that the drones - also known as unmanned aerial vehicles - represent the future of aerial combat.
The technology is now so advanced that the current generation of bomber pilots is likely to be the last.
Guided missiles have been in use for years against ground targets.
However, this is the first time that British forces have used a flying drone to locate a target, monitor it while the airstrike is planned and authorised and then launch the weapons to destroy it.
The drones came of age in the 1980s and 1990s as computers became smaller and more powerful.
The RAF recently signed an urgent deal to buy three U.S-built Reapers and send them to the frontline in Afghanistan, where spy-drones have proved vital in giving allied forces an edge over the Taliban.
Flying from Kandahar Airbase in the south of the country, Britain's Reapers can cover the entire area where UK forces are locked in battle with the Taliban.
The drones are about the size of a small executive jet, and they take off from conventional runways.
They can fly above a battlefield for up to 14 hours, beaming high-definition images to commanders on the ground.
They are used to act within seconds against targets such as key terrorist leaders - instead of waiting up to an hour for a conventional strike jet to arrive.
They are guided via satellite link by RAF 'pilots' sitting 7,000 miles away in a control centre at Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas.
One senior insider said: 'It is a slightly strange existence for them.
'They are intimately involved in the war in Afghanistan, but at the end of their shift they drive out of their base in Nevada, go home and live a normal life.'
The RAF is due to buy its own control system for the Reapers, and in future the drones will be 'flown' by aircrew based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
Defence chiefs also hope to buy another nine drones in the coming months, with the overall project costing around £500million.
You can run but you can’t hide
That’s the airforce job I should get. Couldn’t be a real AF pilot because of my vision but I got well over 1K combat simulator hours.
We have them hiding in holes all over Afghanistan and Iraq and they are afraid to come out lest, like the hand of God, they get smashed. They are unable to plan or prepare for any major attacks from their hideouts.
But, according to Obama, we are not safer.
That's because Barack Hussein Obama is the apex of the hate-America, domestic enemy in this country. His election as president would be the greatest coup any enemy has ever scored against this country and could easily lead to the worst, horrific disaster in our nation's history.
I hope this type of system is never used by a tyrant in this country to suppress the people.
I don’t think they can hear them at all, they fly too high and are pretty quiet.
What happens in Vegas doesn’t ALWAYS stay in Vegas.
The UAVs are doing such a good job blowing the terrorists to bits from afar, it’s amazing that they even try anymore. Peek-a-boo, we see you, BOOM...
Obama’s just lickin’ his chops.
I was just in Las Vegas and noticed some RAF people in uniform at my hotel. I wonder if they were involved in this?
Just the ticket for breaking up “unauthorized gatherings of anti-government outlaws.”
Hopefully his chops will soon be licking him!
Change you can believe in, baby.
That’s the airforce job I should get. Couldn’t be a real AF pilot because of my vision but I got well over 1K combat simulator hours.
~~~
PITOOOIE!!! “I” shot down the Red Baron(Hostile Skys)!!!
Besides,,,My quarter was Up FIRST!...(snicker)...:0)
LOOKIT ME GRAMAW,,,I’M A DIVE-BOMBER!!!...LOL;0)
The Reaper is bigger with a larger pusher engine.
Here's a good Yourtube of the Reaper in Afghanistan.
its a whole new game now! hehehehe
Good video. I’d like to hear from someone “under” Predators about whether they are visible and or audible at their operating altitude. I know a passenger jet is not easy to see and cannot be heard 7 miles up, and these are much, much smaller and quieter.
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