Ah Yes, Reapers, The Immortal Race of Sentient Starships, allegedly waiting in Dark Space.
We have dismissed that claim
Posted on 04/20/2011 8:12:00 PM PDT by jazusamo
U.S. military forces will still be able to target al Qaeda terrorists in mountainous Southwest Asia with remotely piloted drones based in Afghanistan should Pakistan’s government deny the use of its territory to launch attacks.
Col. Dean Bushey, deputy director of the Army’s Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence, told an international-relations conference Wednesday that U.S. Reaper and Predator aircraft could still reach the “mountainous regions” of Pakistan without being based in that country.
“Our assets from Afghanistan have a long enough flight time to do it,” he told the conference, sponsored by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
In a subsequent interview with The Washington Times, he elaborated that “mountainous regions” referred to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, effectively a no man’s land and the place terrorism scholars think Osama bin Laden is likeliest to be.
Pakistan’s leadership last week demanded that the CIA provide more information on covert operations in their country and demanded that all military contractors leave, according to Pakistani and U.S. news reports.
The drone strikes have been controversial in Pakistan because some raids have inadvertently killed civilians. Al Qaeda, other terrorist groups and their political allies have used the casualties to put pressure on the Pakistani government to halt the attacks.
“We would like to put an end to drone missions in Pakistan in general,” a Pakistani military official told The Times. “If there is a compelling reason for a drone strike, Pakistan should be asked to do it themselves. We have the same enemy we are fighting.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
ASAP autonomous air-to-air refuel!
The can is a drone TOO..! We need that anyway.
Reach goal —make the can STEALTHY!
We’ll just keep the drones on patrol constantly —no more egressing with ord still on the racks..!
Ah Yes, Reapers, The Immortal Race of Sentient Starships, allegedly waiting in Dark Space.
We have dismissed that claim
That would sure be more efficient and surely kill more terrorists!
It’s a weird blessing in disguise. Right now we have Predators that ingress for hours, have but 2 shots, and then must eeeeeegress for hours —very high fly/pop ratio. I mean hey, many times they don’t even get a target, and that means allllll that gas for nothing, or just a lot of cam time to plough through.
Our reapers should go out —maybe just one or several times over the course of months, and just keep buzzing around, out in one AO.
And then we get some huge stealthy mambo gas can that takes over that stupid ingress/egress role, servicing all those lethal cackling flying monkeys.
I do not even think the sensors and algorithm need be that complicated to allow for air 2 air refuel.
A REAL stretch would be air 2 air RE-ARM —sounds fanciful but my guess is that some day they’ll accomplish it.
The option is to not fly over their air space or if we do get the damned thing shot down. Why are we there anyway? NO NATION BUILDING!!! Close our border. Leave theirs alone!!!
...still be able to target al Qaeda terrorists in mountainous Southwest Asia with remotely piloted drones based in Afghanistan...
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