[river rat]

You have to wonder, if the kids flying those remote control death birds - still feel their hearts pounding in their chest as they search for, encounter, follow then attack the enemy. Just think about how calm, patient, focused and detached they can be --- because they are perfectly safe, miles and miles away!

What a tool! Plus, the open terrain and absence of jungle canopy -- give these birds a Killer Hawk's view of the world. There must be SF on the ground --- casing the joint, and maybe even painting the target for the Hellfire missle.. Or - does the Hellfire need a painted target???

Do you reckon that maybe it also has IR or some other "warm body" sensing gear -- that can be picked up from under light cover?

I would truely hate to be a grunt in 2002 - facing today's technology.....

It's no longer man to man.....it's man victimized by science....

Semper Fi

[Travis McGee]

I have no idea if the geeks "flying" these things feel anything much, since they are in zero danger. Even VN era flyboys, who avoided the mud etc, lived with the knowledge that a lucky "million dollar BB" could send them to a bamboo cage or worse. Not anymore.

The Predators use a combined high res video for day and FLIR together. It's very hard to hide your heat, almost impossible. It can only be done in earth bunkers etc, a poncho or blanket ro pretend you are a rock (which the Afghans used against Soviet helos) won't help.

The Predators of course need intell to know where to look and who to look for, but they don't need anyone to lase a target. They have their own on board. It's all done via sat data link remotely.

Like you said, it's going to be tough to be a guerrilla in the old sense any more. The only camouflage which will work will be UPS brown or gray pinstripes etc.

[Bobby777]

many of those flying UAV's are real pilots ... not computer geeks ... and they're awfully unhappy about not being at the controls of a real plane ... this is the future of course and it's been a long time coming ... but I can understand the frustration of the military pilots ...

the military should hire a bunch of geeks for these things ... and let the pilots do the real stuff for other work ...

[r9etb]

There must be SF on the ground --- casing the joint, and maybe even painting the target for the Hellfire missle.. Or - does the Hellfire need a painted target???

If you see the target from the UAV, you can paint it from the UAV.

[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 ...