So we all heard about killer drones hunting down AQ bigwigs in Afghanistan (and maybe even Pakistan) and Yemen. But now we got word of a new battlefield for the armed drone.
Sure, the MQ-9 “Reaper” has made some headlines in the past, but in what sounds like a first, the Armys newly armed MQ-5B/C Hunter targeted a team of bad guys implanting a roadside bomb near Qayyarah.
We reported that the Army was to deploy these robot killers to Iraq, but the Pentagon announced this weekend the Hunters first kill. The attack occurred on Sept. 1, according to officials in Iraq, but why it took a week to announce the development is anyones guess.
Drones are a ubiquitous presence in Iraq. You can hear their lawn-mower buzz overhead all day and all night. I know more than a few Soldiers and Marines who had wished all along that the little plane buzzing overhead could just zap the target itself, rather than force troops to run the IED gauntlet and possibly miss the enemy team.
From MNF-I:
A Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle engaged and killed two suspected improvised explosive device emplacers overwatching a major thoroughfare for Coalition Forces during a historic flight near Qayyarah, Iraq, in Nineveh province Sept. 1.
A scout weapons team from 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, observed the two unknown enemy fighters in a tactical overwatch near the roadside. The SWT requested support from the Hunter UAV.
The pilots guided the Hunter operator to the scene where it set up for a strike mission and dropped its precision munition, killing both unknown enemies and marking a first in Army Aviation history.
“Its very humbling to know that we have set an Army historical mark in having the first successful launch in combat from an Army weaponized UAV,” said Capt. Raymond Fields, commander, Unmanned Aerial Surveillance Company. “This would not be possible without my Soldiers and civilians working hard day in and day out in Iraq to accomplish this feat.”
Fields continued, “I think that this success will set the tone for Army Aviation in years to come. We will see more weaponized Army unmanned vehicles being used instead of manned platforms to save not only our aviator brethren but our Army ground brethren from enemy contact.”
“This accomplishment adds a precise and discriminate means for our Army to successfully engage the enemy in counterinsurgency warfare,” said Col. A.T. Ball, commander, 25th CAB.
(Gouge: NC; Photo: Defense Update)
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
And after having successfully engaged it’s targets, the Reaper announced, in a deep Austrian accent, “I’ll be back”. Then proceeded to stamp two little insurgent figures upon the side of it’s fuselage… Maybe.
I think get the nuance of what he is saying but I assume someone else will be able to convey the specifics better and enlighten me.
This is the first Army drone kill, as in all the other predator and if there are reaper kills have been by the air force of CIA? Or what. And is this a confirmed kill with th vipyr strike munition.
I could have sworn I had seen 10s of hellfires being fired at insurgents on video sites but are those all apaches or are they just not army predators?
Every drone kill you have seen – up until September 1- have been AF or CIA drones.
Good to see the Army’s got organic fixed wing air support again, even if it’s a UAV.
Be interesting if you could take it further. The ordnance in the picture’s a BAT/Viper Strike; not the most common item in inventory, and one originally designed for other purposes. Might be interesting to see if you can integrate common TOE ordnance into Army UAV operations. Like, say, a small drone that can launch AT-4, Hydra/APKWS, or LAW rounds, or cough an 81mm bomb out of a recoilless tube array around its CoG.
That might “empower the warfighter” some, give a company or platoon commander more persistent air options, maybe shorten the aerial targeting cycle some. Shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg either, or take a decade to implement.
CIA preditor drones have been taking out targets throughout Afghanistan and Iraq since ’02.
This is just the first “Army” Drone kill.
I would think that these drons would have infared beams, to use on routs the melitary vheicals will use ,to pick up insergents during the night planting road side bombs and blow them up .
I love the way that it can just kill ‘suspected’ people rather than people that have actually been proved to be acting offensively. This will save so much tax payers money on ridiculous and wasteful ‘trials’.
and I love the way that it can just kill people before they have the chance to kill you. That’s what you’re suppose to do in WAR !!
what about the one that hit the pentagon
I
And how exactly do we stop each and every war if the otherside is intent on killing us? When the otherside insists that you “convert or be killed” then you have no choice. Violence is sometimes the only answer. Sometimes you have to take a stand and kill or be killed. “Give peace a chance…..” yeah right, do the “Killing Fields” ring a bell? or how about the Holocaust?
Matias Almeida said in part:
——
Violence is never the answer… when violence wins, nobody else does.
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Tell that to the Carthaginians.
Hint: Third Punic War. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Punic_War
Wishing you and yours the very best, I remain…
yeaah, I saw the video clip on liveleak.com. It showed a guy and a boy around 10 watching presumably his unarmed dad digging a hole,then wam, no dad no son. They didn’t look like Iranian AQ to me, more like local iraqi opposing the illegal invasion, like the french ristance against the NAZIs. Anyway, its good not to be able to hear the enemies screams.
One other thing, you always get American soldier accusing the insurents of
Why doesn’t Jonathan and the other whiny A-Holes use their real names like Col. A.T. Ball, commander, 25th CAB. Try saying your BS to a Marine or soldiers face!
I used my real name, how about you punk?!
Would you rather see our Marines or other military personnel die because of a road side bomb they ran over or should we save lives and let the Hunter do the job? Ask any one in the military and they will tell you it’s one heck of a great weapon. Yes I used my real name unlike some others.
Kill them all and let alllah sort them out! A dead sand bunny is a good sand bunny.
just give us the video from this plane, ok?
I wonder how long it’s going to be before one of the tech savy folks on the other side, our our’s, will develope a FIGHTER DRONE/UAV,… to shoot ours down or distroy theM by crashing into them,… Kamakze-style.
Perhaps a hand grenade on a guidable platform of some sort would be the least expensive but, obviously not reusable.
Employing some of the tech. that the company (Stack-fire?)(???) that makes the stackable, high rate weapons in Australia would make a workable anti-drone unit. The projectles are “stacked” and electriclly fired, leaving only a honeycomb type container behind. Very high rate of fire; LOTS of bullets and little weight. Disposible gun sort of. That might work. (We ought to put those on our UAV’S to patrol the pipelines. They’d shoot streight down, & would kill bad guys without hurting the pipe!)
You know the world isn’t going to stand still on this! Somewhere there’s an fighter “Anti-Drone” UAV on somebody’s drawing board/CAD. It’s going to happen, if it hasn’t already. This stuff never ends. I bet the Fighter Anti-Drone UAV is developed by the same guys sell US these NOW!
JD
??????