[PreciousLiberty]

Summary:

One "test" Avenger drone is headed to Afghanistan. One interesting point about this is that there is little use for a stealthy drone in Afghanistan. On the other hand, such a drone is quite applicable to surveillance and possibly even strike missions in Iran and Pakistan.

The Avenger is jet powered, stealthy, and has an internal weapons bay. When stealth is less of a criteria, four hard points on the wings may be used also. It is rumored to have advanced ground radar (SAR) and the same sophisticated cameras as the F-35.

Let's hope it's less vulnerable than the RQ-170.

[Rich21IE]

Wonderful; I love the fact that a Democrat controlled US gov’t can rain down death from above with impunity.

[Smokin' Joe]

They have center pivot irrigation over there? (Must have been photographed in the States...)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

How long before this one crashes in enemy territory?

[for-q-clinton]

Unless they fixed the GPS issue this one may get captured as well. I read an article where they Iranians, but sent fake GPS signals to the drone. The drone gets confused and then performs an emergency return to homebase. But with the fake GPS data...it gets directed to an Iranian airstrip.

Sad thing is the Iranians did this on a less sophisticated drone earlier in the year. Why they didn’t include a self destruct mechanism is beyond me. If something is so easily hijacked they should put some ordinance on it that can blow up kep components and maybe kill a couple of the hijackers. Or blow it up in mid-air so then it really is less useful.

[null and void]

Let's hope it's less vulnerable than the RQ-170.

ALL weapons systems have a common vulnerability, at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

At what point is our military compelled to act in its own self-defense?