Predator Drone Hits Iraq Gun Emplacement

WASHINGTON (AP) - The first strike of the U.S. war with Iraq using a pilotless Predator drone was used to hit an Iraqi anti-aircraft gun, military officials said.

The strike Friday used a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone to hit the artillery gun outside the Iraqi town of Amarah, which is on the Tigris River north of Basra.

The gun, which is guided by its own radar system, was a ``significant threat'' to coalition aircraft, said Lt. Col. Brian Pierson, chief of reconnaissance operations at the command center which runs the air war over Iraq.

Predators armed with Hellfire missiles were first used by the CIA in Afghanistan, where they were credited with airstrikes that killed al-Qaida members including Mohammed Atef, the terror network's military chief. The military also used Predators for subsequent strikes in Afghanistan.

A Predator strike in Yemen in November killed another top al-Qaida operative, and the military used Predators frequently to patrol the no-fly zone over southern Iraq before the war started.

The Predator has its uses. However, as far as this event goes, I say "big deal". This is nothing a single bomb dropped from one of our strike aircraft couldn't have accomplished.

Predator is probably the most over-hyped technology of this war. Kind of like how they went on and on about the first generation of Patriot missiles in GWI, when all they really did was occasionally knock a Scud off its original course - onto a new course which was actually just as good (and random) as the original.

The Predator UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) flies around at low altitude with a video camera that has a very small field of view. It cannot see much. It's like flying around and looking through a soda straw at the ground. It is useful as a surveillance platform for looking at specific targets of interest (e.g. the way the CIA used it in Yemen). It is terrible as a general means of search and surveillance. The US has MUCH better tools in its ISR arsenal.

The Global Hawk UAV is also overhyped, although less so. Both are good, and have great future potential, but UAVs are FAR from being good, reliable, workhorses for ISR operations yet.

Sorry. Just tired of hearing all about Predator & Global Hawk from commentators and news people who don't understand what they're talking about.

But they can still loiter and strike when needed. And their surveillance capability will improve steadily. You're too dismissive.

I wasn't trying to be dismissive. As I said before, "Both are good, and have great future potential, but ..."

My main point was that the news organizations keep hyping up the Predator, showing rotating pictures of it, etc., over and over. You'd think it was the ultimate secret ISR weapon of the war or something.

No doubt its usefulness and capability will improve, and it certainly has utility right now for certain missions. However, the news folks are blowing its current usefulness way out of proportion.

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