[USNBandit]

One other thing is that just because you are using a laser doesn't mean you are designating a target for delivery. More often these days you are using a laser to generate a set of coordinate for GPS guided JDAM or to cue for a laser spot tracker on a platform and then they lase for themselves. Ground based lasing is kind of a last resort due to the negative effect of any vertical development of the target.

What this guy is saying is that you never lase until there is air support over the target so you can coordinate the proper code. If you were guiding an air dropped weapon yourself then yes, you do need to enter the proper code for each weapon. This doesn't support the existence of a Spectre over the target because I don't recall that platform doesn't carry any weapons that would require laser guidance.

[butterdezillion]

How likely is it that the Predator would have hellfires that could have hit the target?

That information should be easy enough to find out, shouldn’t it? If Congress investigated they should know this quickly, shouldn’t they?