IRAQIS CAPTURE BRITISH DRONE

The Iraqi troops claim to have shot down and cap­tured a British Army Phoenix drone near Basra, accord­ing to Jane’s Defence Weekly.
The truck-​​launched, 5.5 meter wide Phoenix unmanned planes have been used for nearly five years as recon­nais­sance planes; they put in over 2,000 hours of flights over Kosovo.
But in Gulf War II, the drones took on a new mis­sion: to iden­tify tar­gets for British artillery, like the AS90 155mm self-​​propelled how­itzer and Multiple Launch Rocket System.
Unlike the Afghan con­flict, we haven’t heard much about drones get­ting shot down in Gulf War II. Why not? My guess is that the slow, steady bomb­ing of Iraqi anti-​​aircraft posi­tions in the months lead­ing up to ground com­bat have given unmanned planes like the Predator unfet­tered access to the skies. And, of course, the Iraqis have tens of thou­sands of sol­diers on the ground to worry about. Maybe they can’t be both­ered with a few robots in the air.

March 28th, 2003 | Drones | 4258 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2003/03/28/iraqis-capture-british-drone/IRAQIS+CAPTURE+BRITISH+DRONE2003-03-28+14%3A50%3A39cjmilcom You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.