Predator Notches another al Qaida

efreedomnews.com ^ | 11/5/2002 | efreedomnews

[efnwriter]

efreedomnews         WAR ON TERRORISM - AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

Predator Notches another al Qaida
November 5, 2002
efreedomnews.com

The hottest gunslinger in the US Military corral is the Air Force's Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Tasked by Gen. John P. Jumper, commander of the Air Force Air Combat Command  to "demonstrate a weaponized UAV" with the ability to "find a target, then eliminate it," the Predator has proven its worth again this week in the War on Terrorism.

Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, al Qaida's main man in Yemen, was eliminated by the Predator's Hellfire Missile,  as he was tracked in a car traveling across the desert in the Marib area of northwest Yemen along with five of his associates.

Also known as Abu Ali, al-Harthi was behind the USS Cole bombing in Yemen in October 2000. Reuters reported: "Al-Harthi was the senior al Qaeda representative in Yemen and among the top dozen al Qaeda leaders worldwide."
 

"Not So Safe Anymore"

The tribal area called Marib, 100 miles east of the capital, San'a, is in the same region where bin Laden's father was born. The tribal ruled region is a known al Qaida "safe-haven" - not so safe anymore. In September, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made the landmark decision to put US Special Forces Command (SOCOM) in charge of international anti-terrorism operations. [SOCOM Unleashed: Special Forces Take Lead in Terror War]

Our finest warriors - Navy Seals, Green Berets, Delta Force, - under command of Air Force Gen. Charles R. Holland, along with CIA paramilitary units, are tasked with direct responsibility for covert action against al-Qaida and other international terrorist groups.

In light of that responsibility more than 500 Special Operations troops were posted to our east African ally Djibouti along with the USS Belleau Wood, an amphibious assault ship with attack helicopters and Harrier jump jets along with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
 

The USS Nassau transited the Red Sea this week with a contingent of some 2,200 Marines, relieving an the Belleau Wood amphibious ready group.

 

Rumsfeld's decision just came to fruition with this strike against al Qaida.

President Bush's comment:

"The only way to treat them is what they are - international killers. And the only way to find them is to be patient, and steadfast, and hunt them down. And the United States of America is doing just that," President George W. Bush said. "We're in it for the long haul."

[Bobby777]

Hellfire is autonomous I believe ... fire and forget ... after the target has been "locked" into the missile's onboard systems ... drones laser targets for artillery shells (with guidance), GBU ordnance dropped from aircraft and other certain semi-active guidance weapons ...

[Bobby777]

should have said "propwash and the wing / fuselage vortex" from the aircraft ... one KC-10 "gas" pumper told me he hated when a C-5 / 17 would pull up because the bow wave from those aircraft would lift the tail of the KC-10 a bit ...

[river rat]

All this modern black magic -- just convinces this old fart - that you'd have to be nuts to pick a fight with the U.S.A. in these times...


Semper Fi

[Travis McGee]

Good valid points, as long as the dummy drones don't get loaded up with capability until they are just as expensive as real Predators.

The criticalr restriction at this time is available sat bandwidth to handle all the video etc. The beauty of dummies is that they just fly passively on GPS, then return and land themselves at the end of a mission. Cameras and sat links, and you are talking another animal, even if the sat time is only used selectively.

[river rat]

I should have thought that through..
Thanks for waking me up..
Semper Fi

[Travis McGee]

Tactics and camouflage will have to adapt big time, that's for certain.

The days of playing Robin Hood and his Merry Men in the forest are OVER, (unless you are on the side with the aviation and comm support.)

[Bobby777]

there's some wild stuff out there ... things they work on and have implemented ... a couple decades (nearly) ago they had various electronic maps to pop into your F-18, -15, etc. ... you select your target from the map, fairly fresh from satellite imaging and rendered into 3-D with sythetic mapping ... then a laser picked the target from the map ... then if the aircraft got into a dogfight or other evasive manuevers, after it was all over the target could be immediately picked up and the weapon released ... on a laser weapon watching the special coded laser spot (to keep the enemy from painting a friendly with a laser) and kaboom ...

they had fake "plants" (or whatever camoflauge they wanted) with anti-tank weapons that launched on the heavy rumbling of the vehicle as it passed within a certain distance ... they launch up over the vehicle's general direction and spiral down in overlapping patterns with infrared eyes searching for the engine's heat signature ... when engaged they fired a shaped charge-generated "bullet" of non-explosive material that pierce the relatively thin top armor because it traveled several thousand fps ... (the shape charge was behind a concave circular disc made to form into a pointy shape after the detonation) ...

I liked the carbon fiber cruise missiles they used in Iraq ... non-explosive warheads ... just carbon fiber that drifts down like angel hair ... using (then) digital maps from imaging aircraft and satellites and now with GPS, the carbon fiber drapes over power lines at substations ... causing them to short out and fry ... cutting power to weapons systems that didn't have alternate sources engaged ... hehe ...

[Bobby777]

All this modern black magic -- just convinces this old fart - that you'd have to be nuts to pick a fight with the U.S.A. in these times...

the only problem is our stuff was mainly designed to combat Soviet machines of varying degrees of technology, 1960's stuff like old warships and MiG-21's (50's really there) to some of their latest stuff ...

today our enemy is mainly special teams with relatively low-tech systems dependent upon attrition ... so where we would have had to combat limited Soviet Spetznaz-style infiltrators, now we have madmen with AK-47's, plastic explosives, nails and ball bearings ... they think nothing of murdering countless civilians and even celebrate it ... in fact it's their favorite target because it will produce the highest number of casualties and terror ...

at a minimum I am opposted to replacing our heavy systems like tanks and aircraft carriers ... the M1A2 is sufficient for some period of time though missile technology will advance ... we can't trade $40,000 Hellfires for 6 terrorists at a time though ... for OBL and his top lieutenants, no problem ... for the average foot soldier it will have to be something different ... Israel targets their top guys ... main bomb makers and makes it difficult for them to live ... not a bad solution ... since the enemy's military objectives have religious overtones, it's no longer ground acquisition or ruling seas ... it's about subduing civilizations by cultural oppression and intransigence to anything opposing Islam ... a cultural genocide ...

[river rat]

"...it's about subduing civilizations by cultural oppression and intransigence to anything opposing Islam ... a cultural genocide ...

And therein lies their unavoidable downfall.
You can burn a man's home, and he will rebuild..
You can take a man's land, and he will move on..
You attempt to enslave a man, take his freedom or deny his belief system.....and you have a fight to the death on your hands..

These militant Islamanazis never dreamed that the "weak willed and decadent immoral infidel" would come to HIM and fight him on any terms necessary to kill him.....

I still worry that some stupid Jihad bastards here in the U.S. will start a fire that will consume them and all Muslim supporters here in the States. They have no idea of how quickly and violently a new "civil war" can engulf them..

Semper Fi

[Bobby777]

as long as we don't let them acquire modern technology ... a terrible thing to say ... but they've been quite successful in Northern Africa, the Middle East of course, and the areas like Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Soviet areas, and are presently building a political body in Western Europe and Great Britian ... for this reason, I have a slight tinfoil that says MI6 killed Diana in France, since she was literally in bed with Dodi Fayed, son of Harrod's owner Fayed and he was actually a producer on the TV version of "F/X" (saw his name on the credits) ... had Diana married him and converted her sons, a Muslim by religion could have taken the thrown of England ...

it's just a theory some have circulated and not all that far-fetched ... but then Bigfoot might be riding an ATV through Yellowstone, too ... 8)

there's a video out there called "Sudan: The Hidden Holocaust" ... I want to get a copy because it's supposed to be pretty good at documenting what has gone on over there ... the stories out of Alergia in the mid-to-late 1990's were horrifying ...

[r9etb]

The critical restriction at this time is available sat bandwidth to handle all the video etc.

Current MILSATCOM capabilities are such that medium-quality video bandwidth wouldn't be that big a deal -- and if you're sharing a single channel, you're not imposing much of a load -- and the switching can be automated: no commanding required. I think what really makes the Predator costly is the remote-control aspect. It's a piloted plane, which implies all sorts of command/telemetry/feedback capabilities. A passive GPS autopilot gets around that part.

[sneakypete]

Imagine how 100s of FLIR camera equipped drones (and thousands of distractive dummies) could have altered the outcome of the VN war.

There can't be any doubt they would have been a big help. Might even have put me out of a job,which really wouldn't have been a bad thing.

[Travis McGee]

I'm guessing there would be fewer names on that wall too.

[sneakypete]

I'm guessing there would be fewer names on that wall too.

Like I said,"not a bad thing" when you think about it.

[Travis McGee]

Sometimes do you feel like you were fighting with bows and arrows over there? Things have sure changed.

[sneakypete]

Sometimes do you feel like you were fighting with bows and arrows over there?

Sometimes I feel so old I think I pre-date bows and arrows. Having said that,my biggest fear is that people become too dependent on modern technology and electronics. Ain't nothing wrong with GPS and stuff like laser target finders,but let's not forget how to plot a course with a compass,or how to put iron sights on target and mentally allow for distance and wind.

[Rocko]

Your tax dollars at work.

[Travis McGee]

You can bet that the Chinese have knocking out our data links as priority one. EMP weapons launched over Taiwan for example.

If it comes down to everybody is fighting blind with fried electronics, we are going to be in the hurt locker.

[sneakypete]

If it comes down to everybody is fighting blind with fried electronics, we are going to be in the hurt locker.

You got that right. You can only beat numbers with technology as long as the technology works. But don't tell our planners this. They all want to pretend that the all-volunteer military really DOES work,and will continue to work as long as we spend the money on research. But what the hell do I know? I'm just a old fart who thinks they need to spend some of that money teaching the basics.

[Travis McGee]

I can still picture hordes of Chinese swarming over our lines with AKs while our troops bang on their radios and smack their electronic sights.