Yesterday afternoon we ran a story on Military.com about a U.S. drone strike that killed four Shiite “militants” in Basra.
An unmanned U.S. drone fired two Hellfire missiles at militants attacking Iraqi soldiers in a Shiite militia stronghold in the southern city of Basra on Wednesday, killing four of the gunmen, the military said.
The airstrike in Basra occurred about 1 a.m. after militiamen attacked an Iraqi army patrol with rocket-propelled grenades on the eastern side of the Hayaniyah district, the U.S. military said. A vehicle suspected of containing more weapons and ammunition also was destroyed.
To me this strike seemed interesting for it’s “close air support” flavor. Up until only recently, the armed Predators and Reapers have been used primarly for strategic and infrastructure strikes. We all know about drones going after HVTs in a “surgical” hit, but this time it seems they were used to support Iraqi troops on the ground.
We also saw reports of drones being used in this way during last week’s fighting in Sadr City.
Does this signal a paradigm shift in the use of combat drones? I’d be interested to know what the coordination for CAS is with this kind of asset — what’s the response time? Seems to me it’s a good idea in a place where US assets are thinly distributed like Basra. And as the US withdraws more and more troops over the coming years, we could see a lot more of this kind of drone-kills-man scenario.
– Christian
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
This could be a good opportunity to replace one of the best manned close air support aircraft, the A-10. Imagine a drone, with all its vunerable electronics, encased in some lightweight armor, like the A-10 titanium bath tub around the pilot. Mount a gun on the drone, and it could be just as deadly as an A-10. Even better yet, use a design similar to the Bell Eagle Eye tilt-rotor drone, and modify it with the lethal feature of the A-10. Then you would have a excellent CAS drone as well as a proper escort for the V-22 Osprey. I like the A-10, but the Airforce will not replace it properly, except with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which doesn’t have the loiter time the A-10 has.
Goes to show that F-35 is completely unnecessary for the close support role. Give the Predators and Reapers to the Army already!
These have been used for a while now in the Close Air Support role. They intended it for that role when they gave it lethality by arming it with a hellfire. The reaper is even more suited for such a role as it has a longer rnage and loiter time coupled with a heavier payload.
I must disagree with these being the replacement for the A-10. I know troops can trust a pilot’s vision better than that of a UAV camera operator and this is crucial for close air support of the type the A-10 delivers to you.
These UAVs even uparmed to the extent you mention would be sitting ducks to a country with modern air defense capabilities, whereas an A-10 or F-35, they have reaction time that makes them far more suitable for this role than a slower UAV.
I do like the idea of using one or more of these as an armed escort for the V-22. That would enable the marines to not worry as much about the added weight and lowered payload that encompasses adding a self defense gun to the aircraft. Coupled by the enhanced sensors in a UAV, they would do much better, especially at night to fend off an ambush or enemy attacks in all conditions.
Damn,I thought this was the article about the Talon SWORDS robot that had to be shut down because it was aiming its weapon at its own men,shades of Skynet,my bad.
I saw a show on the Military channel about a Special Forces team that was discovered early in the war and had to be extracted. They were under attack by several hundred men and only through the efforts of the air force providing close air support did they make it out. There was so much one-on-one communications between the airmen and the ground forces to make split second decisions that only a live pilot could make. I don’t think drones will ever totally replace live pilots.
I agree. Further development of this type of close air support system is a great way to go. Eliminating the pilot and replacing him with fuel, ordnance and reduced size gives a longer TOT at a what SHOULD be a lower cost. SHOULD but WON’T! The guys in charge of making sure the contractors make lot$ of MONEY will gold plate these things till they cost more than an F-22, you watch ‘em!!
The Army SHOUULD take over some of this role also. Along with the Marines. After all, it is usually THEIR people who are being supported isn’t it? The AF needs to take it’s lead in Space, Fast Movers (for as long as they continue to exist) and Moving cargo/people. That’s what they do best.
Perhaps a SWARM type of Attack/Defense system with these things would make future fighters obsolete, for any country. These could even, eventually, become fast enough to provide a missile defense if they could be placed in low orbit. (Screw the “treaty”)
Pilots are good but the cost of the equipmet and the high loss/capture factor needs to be considered. The only thing I worry about is that the Army is full of ham handed generals that are NOT Aviators. They really never will understand the best employment of aviation assets because of thier attitudes toward pilots in general. It’s always been that way. I also doubt that the A&D of these aircraft would be as good as if it were done by the Air Force. So far, they have done a really great job!
My Son is a an AF pilot and really is NOT going to appreciate me saying this but: GO ROBOT!
JD
Grandjester and Skinner,
Don’t think we will be seeing Predators down many enemy fighters, more like the other way around, they are very vulnerable to enemy aircraft and SAMs, which we haven’t seen in Iraq, but we may see in another war soon. Even if no pilot is lost when a Predator is shot down, they are expensive as well and we can’t afford to have many of them shot out of the sky. The F-35 will also carry a much larger and more varied payload. Trust me, the F-35 is needed more than ever as the F-22 is not being bought in the numbers it should be.
I think its awesome that an article like this for an unmanned air vehicle is praised as a breakthrough in modern warfare, but the second you put it on the ground it becomes some terrible nightmare. What is up with that?
I am all for putting more distance between our service members and danger. The Reaper/Predator program is making great strides in the unmanned combat arena. Hopefully John Q Public will see that providing our military with these types of tools will do more to support our troops than those “support your troops” ribbon stickers that are so popular.
wpnexp,
Funny name, since you didn’t get my point. F-35 is uneeded for many reason, but my point was about how unnecessary it is in the close support role, which pred/reap is great for (yes Ed, I agree, NOTHING matches the A-10 but they wont last forever OR re-open the line and with HiDef imaging upgrades, they will be better than a pilots eyes) and CAS usually takes place after Air superiority and SEAD have been achived. Again, placing these assest DIRECTLY under the control of the ground commanders makes the most sense.
I honestly believe we need to build more A-10′s. It’s a fantastic aircraft for ground support of all kinds as well as the SAR mission.
I would even go so far as to say if the Air Force doesn’t want to keep them around let Army aviators have them. Yep the Army supporting the Army just as the Apache does now. Of course the Air Force would never go for that but I believe it would work very well.
“The Fighter Pilot Generals have become the Battleship Admirals of the 21st century.”
Quote of the day, Sir!
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