Posted on 03/31/2006 3:06:54 PM PST by MARKUSPRIME
That story from balad has a personal meaning for me. My nephew is a AF msgt on 4 months active duty(from reserve status in WA state)at the Balad airbase. He sent us a picture of him standing in front of a predator, nice to know it's being used for the skyhigh price it costs. He says the terrorists have a creative way of doing mortars : put the mortar tube in water, leaving the round suspended above, ready to drop, in ice(it gets super cold at night in the desert there); then when the ice melts in the morning the round drops, and they are long gone. Thus they have lots of concrete walls all around the base, mostly effective as these mortars are not particularly accurate; Doug says that only if they score a direct hit on the tents they live in is there any casualties. The operating theaters are concrete shelters, not flimsy tents. Sad isn't it? They treat wounded iraqis as well as their own guys, and the thanks they get is the terrorist's IEDs...And too, in 36 hours flat they can have our wounded guys in Landstahl germany aboard ICU-equipped AF cargo planes, amazing medical technology vs past wars...
Ahhhhhh! Leaves me with a case of the warm fuzzies! Making them spend the last 30 minutes of their miserable lives digging a hole next to the highway was the best part.
I have no doubt this action saved lives and who can place the cost of even one life. But the cost of hellfire missles has to be several hundred thousand dollars a piece and we can't kill every insurgent with a hellfire and win the war on terror and pay for it. The hellfire was designed to take out tanks and mechanized infantry. Couldn't they call in gunships or orbitting strike aircraft to place an accurately delivered bullet or dumb iron bomb at .oo1% of the cost? Not to be picky or anything and I would be the first to say horray for 3 more dead terrorists and I even like the overkill, as long as we don't run out of hellfires to take care of business when the shooting starts with Iran and or Syria where they will be needed more.
Target Acquired!
Fire!
Good Job Soldier!
They blowed up real good!
Considering the psychological effect an attack like this could have, it's money very well spent.
Two more and it's an ace.
You can rest assured that the folks operating the Predator are well aware of the cost of using one.
The article mentioned that they watched the insurgents for half an hour before zotting them. During this time the officer in charge almost certainly was checking in with the air operations folks to see if a gunship or fast mover was available for a (low tech) strike.
Mark Levin is talking about this right now!
You are probably right. I just recall during the gulf war operating commnaders told Apache gunners to stop taking out $20,000 dollar trucks with $100,000 dollar missles and to use their chain gun more. Even in CCIP mode an F/A-18 can place a MK82 within 10 feet from 10,000 feet up. I agree and my statement may be premature and I withdraw my ascertion. Hurray for another smoking whole courtesy of the Predetor and a well used hellfire.
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