Posted on 11/04/2002 10:19:25 AM PST by Bobby777
Car explosion kill 6 alleged al-Qaida members
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES
SAN'A, Yemen, Nov. 4 Six al-Qaida suspects were killed Monday when the car they were traveling in blew up in northwest Yemen in an area where authorities believe the terror group is active, Yemeni security officials said. They included a suspect in the al-Qaida linked attack two years ago on the U.S. warship in a Yemeni port.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
Good ideas, Darth Vader might have an opening on his staff. You'd be a good fit:)
Scary.
Remember and vote for Republicans in the Senate and House TOMORROW!
"Ali Mahq Bar chit chit chit we're hit."
Yup...confirmed :)
Thank you Allah.
Remember and vote for Republicans in the Senate and House TOMORROW!
A vote for the rats is the same as a free pass for the al Qaeda thugs in the world.
Da$$hole, Leaky Leahy, Kennedy, etc need to become the real minority party as this war is fought by our adults who want to save America not have it destroyed by the Islamofascists and their Islamakazis!
.....That's gonna leave a mark.....
.....LOL.....
Wiered Al Gore would have STILL been on larry King with charts and graphs explaining what a taliban is, and how we shouldn't do anything to attack them.
Contact: Cyndi Wegerbauer
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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(858) 455-2294 |
26 February 2001 |
RQ-1 PREDATOR® HELLFIRE MISSILE TESTS TOTALLY SUCCESSFUL.
26 February 2001 -- San Diego, California. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), a leading manufacturer of unmanned aircraft surveillance systems, is pleased to announce the re-release of the following article published and written by Ms. Sue Baker, Aeronautical Systems Center, Public Affairs, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Ohio), USAF:
Aerospace history was made Feb. 21 with the successful launch of a live missile from an unmanned aerial vehicle. The Air Forces Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) program is evolving from a non-lethal, reconnaissance asset, to an armed, highly accurate tank-killer, according to senior program officials from Air Combat Command (ACC) at Langley Air Force Base, Va., and Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) here.
Capping a three-part series of demonstration flight tests on Feb. 21, Predator successfully aimed and launched a live Hellfire-C, laser-guided missile that struck an unmanned, stationary Army tank on the ground at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Airfield near Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., said Major Ray Pry, Predator program manager, Big Safari Program Office at ASCs Reconnaissance Aircraft System Program Office (SPO).
Flown by two ACC crew-members, a pilot and sensor-operator from the 53rd Test and Evaluation Group at Nellis, who were located in a nearby Ground Control Station (GCS), Predator launched the missile using Line-of-Sight (LOS) communication, inflicting heavy damage to the tank, Major Pry said. The final flight, part of a Phase I feasibility demonstration that began in August 2000, was preceded by two similar, completely successful Hellfire launches on Feb. 16 and earlier on Feb. 21, according to the major.
This first recorded missile launch from a UAV took place on Feb. 16 at approximately 11:05 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), he said. Equipped with a single, inert Hellfire-C missile, the Predator, using its LOS communication band and infrared Kosovo laser-ball, aimed and struck the tank-turret about six inches to the right of dead-center, spinning the turret around about 30 degrees. It made a big, gray dent in the turret just beautiful.
Following the first launch, the Predator/Hellfire launch team reviewed telemetry data and camera footage captured by the GCS crew and a helicopter from the Nellis Range, Major Pry said.
We wanted to be sure that we had captured what we thought we had seen that the stress and loads were within Predators limits, and that the guides worked perfectly, he explained. With two shots planned for Feb. 21 using both satellite and LOS communications links, we wanted to ensure we could use the satellite link to fire the missile.
Assembling at 4:30 a.m. local Nellis time, the team flew the Predator for 10 to 15 practice runs, doing simulated set-ups and launches of the missile, Major Pry said. At approximately 9:30 a.m., the conditions were favorable for a live run, and the 53rd Test and Evaluation Group operators were ready. We executed the launch using the satellite link for the first mission. This successful launch met a key goal of the first phase of the demonstration. We came in on final approach, about seven kilometers from the tank, turned the laser off just shy of five kilometers, launched the inert Hellfire, Major Pry said. About seventeen seconds later, the missile impacted the side of the tank, hit the turret dead-square in the middle, and spun it partially around.
We inspected the damage to the turret and reset all parameters to use the LOS communications link for the live missile shot next, Major Pry explained. After a whole series of run-ins, to make sure the entire team was in sync, we went through another pass with the same exact mission profile as the previous launch, and loosed the live Hellfire. The missile exploded as planned against the side of the tank.
Now that the initial weaponization feasibility tests have been successfully completed, ACC Commander Gen. John Jumper will review the results to determine when Phase II of the effort will begin, according to Lt. Col. Tom Carlson, director of ACCs Advanced Weapons Requirements Branch.
Phase II will take the Predator/Hellfire combination to more realistic, operational altitudes and conditions, including the challenge of a moving target, Colonel Carlson explained. This will complete the demonstration of the objectives we set down at the beginning of this process, to demo the technology, and prove its operational feasibility. There are still some challenges ahead, the colonel said. We need to do some re-engineering on the missile, to take it up to higher altitudes. Once were given the green light to proceed to Phase II -- and all indications are that we will - it will require another symphony of players, brought together by Major Pry and his team, to execute the second round of demonstration flights.
The bottom line is that we are taking a Hellfire missile, normally launched from an Army helicopter with its landing-skids in the trees, or from the deck of a sea-borne Navy carrier, flying under 2,000 feet, and asking it to fly at higher altitudes, Colonel Carlson said. The recent Predator launches were done within the normal operating elevations for Hellfire.
The UAV was equipped with hard points by General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems International (GA-ASI), the prime contractor in San Diego, Calif., according to Major Pry. We knew we needed to reinforce the structural, weight-bearing capabilities of Predator, by adding composites to its forward and rear spars, plus some aluminum for attaching the hard points.
Key to the success of this Predator/Hellfire demonstration was support from the Aviation, Rockets and Missiles program office at Red Stone Arsenal, Ala., Major Pry added. In addition to the prime contractor GA-ASI, Predators additional contractor team-members include Raytheon in McKinney, Texas, and L3 Communications in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Well, they aren't 'suspects' anymore!
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