posted July 15, 2007 07:24 PM            

By CHARLES J. HANLEY

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AP) - The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.

The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.

The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.

That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected "soon," says the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? "We're still working that," Lt. Gen. Gary North said in an interview.

(AP) Lt. Col. Stephen Williams, Commander for the 332nd Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron,...
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The Reaper's first combat deployment is expected in Afghanistan, and senior Air Force officers estimate it will land in Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring. They look forward to it.

"With more Reapers, I could send manned airplanes home," North said.

The Associated Press has learned that the Air Force is building a 400,000-square-foot expansion of the concrete ramp area now used for Predator drones here at Balad, the biggest U.S. air base in Iraq, 50 miles north of Baghdad. That new staging area could be turned over to Reapers.

It's another sign that the Air Force is planning for an extended stay in Iraq, supporting Iraqi government forces in any continuing conflict, even if U.S. ground troops are drawn down in the coming years.

The estimated two dozen or more unmanned MQ-1 Predators now doing surveillance over Iraq, as the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, have become mainstays of the U.S. war effort, offering round-the-clock airborne "eyes" watching over road convoys, tracking nighttime insurgent movements via infrared sensors, and occasionally unleashing one of their two Hellfire missiles on a target.

From about 36,000 flying hours in 2005, the Predators are expected to log 66,000 hours this year over Iraq and Afghanistan.

The MQ-9 Reaper, when compared with the 1995-vintage Predator, represents a major evolution of the unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV.

At five tons gross weight, the Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator. Its size - 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan - is comparable to the profile of the Air Force's workhorse A-10 attack plane. It can fly twice as fast and twice as high as the Predator. Most significantly, it carries many more weapons.

While the Predator is armed with two Hellfire missiles, the Reaper can carry 14 of the air-to-ground weapons - or four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs.

"It's not a recon squadron," Col. Joe Guasella, operations chief for the Central Command's air component, said of the Reapers. "It's an attack squadron, with a lot more kinetic ability."

"Kinetic" - Pentagon argot for destructive power - is what the Air Force had in mind when it christened its newest robot plane with a name associated with death.

"The name Reaper captures the lethal nature of this new weapon system," Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff, said in announcing the name last September.

General Atomics of San Diego has built at least nine of the MQ-9s thus far, at a cost of $69 million per set of four aircraft, with ground equipment.

The Air Force's 432nd Wing, a UAV unit formally established on May 1, is to eventually fly 60 Reapers and 160 Predators. The numbers to be assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan will be classified.

The Reaper is expected to be flown as the Predator is - by a two-member team of pilot and sensor operator who work at computer control stations and video screens that display what the UAV "sees." Teams at Balad, housed in a hangar beside the runways, perform the takeoffs and landings, and similar teams at Nevada's Creech Air Force Base, linked to the aircraft via satellite, take over for the long hours of overflying the Iraqi landscape.

American ground troops, equipped with laptops that can download real-time video from UAVs overhead, "want more and more of it," said Maj. Chris Snodgrass, the Predator squadron commander here.

The Reaper's speed will help. "Our problem is speed," Snodgrass said of the 140-mph Predator. "If there are troops in contact, we may not get there fast enough. The Reaper will be faster and fly farther."

The new robot plane is expected to be able to stay aloft for 14 hours fully armed, watching an area and waiting for targets to emerge.

"It's going to bring us flexibility, range, speed and persistence," said regional commander North, "such that I will be able to work lots of areas for a long, long time."

The British also are impressed with the Reaper, and are buying three for deployment in Afghanistan later this year. The Royal Air Force version will stick to the "recon" mission, however - no weapons on board.

______________________

I have a new T-shirt from Balad Air Base ...

Hopefully, this will change the war and we'll see less casualties.

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Welcome back from the Sandbox Bear...I love you...Forever and a Day....

www.IMWITHFRED.com

posted July 15, 2007 08:41 PM              

Yippie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I mean at least post an article about the people in Darfur who are dying.

You expect us to cheer for this?

Pathetic....now we know why certain people follow the Right. It's only about killing and conquering.

posted July 15, 2007 10:20 PM            

Read the article. With new surveillance equipment and remote control attack equipment more lives will actually be saved. We can now see, from the use of an UAV, what the enemy is doing and have a precise attack to take out the "car bombs" before they reach innocent civilians.

That keeps our guys from having to rush in and fight and prevents the terrorists from reaching their targets.

But, you can't see that. You are exactly the kind of person that celebrates innocent deaths so that you can promote your anti-Right agenda.

Then again, Twinkle Starred Mystic toilet paper.. you will be a short lived user on this forum once again.

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Welcome back from the Sandbox Bear...I love you...Forever and a Day....

www.IMWITHFRED.com

posted July 15, 2007 11:11 PM              

I don't think it's a good thing. ...

looks like we'll learn the hard way again... .

posted July 16, 2007 12:42 AM            

I think it is a great thing. Using technology has always won wars. If we can determine what an insurgent is doing before they kill innocent people at a school or mosque, isn't it worth it? If real time images can be sent to Soldiers on the ground so that they can avoid an ambush, isn't that worth it?

We have to live in the hear and now. Right now I am tired of terrorists killing children and torturing families. I want it all to stop and I don't want see any more innocent bloodshed. I know the UAV program works.

BUD,

Bear is doing great. He's back in Germany preparing for us to move to our new Post in Schweinfurt. He'll be out here in Sept for a few weeks and then we'll go back to Germany together.

How are you doing?

Hugs,

posted July 16, 2007 01:07 AM              

I do understand what you mean, but there is still the big picture to consider. ...

Technology has always brought on a fall..
more efficient ways of killing..

posted July 16, 2007 01:23 AM              

I started thinking of Giant Robot soldiers, then onto the transformers, lol...

posted July 16, 2007 02:37 PM              

Giant Robots, makes me think of War of the Worlds, with Tom Cruies, I use to really like him, but now, I just think he's working for the dark side, POwer has gotten to him...

When my sister wnet crazy in 2006, she had entities telling her about all the robots that were coming, they gave her half truths, and FEAR, lots of it! Half the Truth has come to light now...
If they can't fight us, perhaps they'll just send nuclear missiles our way, then robots will have to be used, because we'll all be stuck in our bubbles, out of the air contamination..
Can't anyone think things through, before doing?
This decision to use these robots is a big mistake, that's the way I see it!
From talking to people in Canada, it seems that is where the terrorists are re-grouping, I hope the U.S. is paying attention, Alberta way, west...something has to give!
What kind of world are we creating now? One that assures total annihilation for all, but the one's in POwer who will have their shelters?

We should be protesting this, before it gets out of hand. ...and into their hands. ...

Sorry for rambling, but this is Sirius...

posted July 16, 2007 07:49 PM            

Well Pid, gotta disagree with you when you said that it will save lives. Pilots lives possibly but then again it won't make much of a difference to the problems we are already seeing with airstrikes.

The purpose of an airstrike is rarely precision but rather splash damage on a concentrated area. (EDIT: rarely about STRONG precision.) In the past, CAS (close air support) was even more imprecise. During the Vietnam war for instance, the main U.S. CAS support aircraft was the WW2 era Thunderbolt (No not the A-10 Thunderbolt; That is the modern answer to the ongoing CAS support problem.)

See with most rebel attacks, the insurgents make sure that they are surrounded by civilan targets when an airstrike is called and well, I really don't blame the troops for calling on one when they need it but it has become an extremely bad problem when it comes to civilian casulties. The same tactic was used by Hezbullah during their conflict with Israel and we already know of the Global reaction to those airstrikes.

And its not just limited to the Americans. Infact Hamid Karzai really laid it down to the Canadian Commanders as to how the airstrikes they are calling upon are leaving so many innocent Afgans dead.

posted July 16, 2007 08:36 PM              

there's room for error, opps, I hit the wrong button!

posted July 16, 2007 09:02 PM            

Or would you rather have them sit in isolation and wire them up to the computer?

posted July 16, 2007 09:09 PM            

However, how could a Commander ever explain to a "weeping mother that we could have brought your sons and daughter back in one piece but we couldn't because of what... tradition?"

posted July 16, 2007 09:18 PM              

well, you see where I am going with this?