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2008-01-02 Home Front: WoT
Military Use of Unmanned Aircraft Soars
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Posted by Steve White 2008-01-02 00:00|| || Front Page|| [9 views ]  Top

#1 The video games geeks' hour of glory.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-01-02 03:57||   2008-01-02 03:57|| Front Page Top

#2 You'd think so ... but the Predator and Global Hawk class UAVs are flown by pilots not gameboy veterans. A lot of work goes into the ground control stations for the pilot and sensor crews on these.
Posted by lotp 2008-01-02 11:05||   2008-01-02 11:05|| Front Page Top

#3 Hey, I got quite a few hours in 'Wings over Vietnam' - I know that the UAV operation is a bit more complicated but it is in my interest if/when the time comes. I also hear that are a good number of applicants for this field; highly competitive.

Out of curiousity for those of you who know, how long is an ASVAB test good for (or is it something taken before every application)?
Posted by swksvolFF 2008-01-02 11:21||   2008-01-02 11:21|| Front Page Top

#4 A lot of work goes into the ground control stations for the pilot and sensor crews on these

There's a joke about par 3 courses and poor fairway in there somewhere. ;>
Posted by Thomas Woof 2008-01-02 12:11|| http://www.cybernations.net/]">[http://www.cybernations.net/]  2008-01-02 12:11|| Front Page Top

#5 They're a cross between a railroad box car and those trailors parked at construction sites. ;-)
Posted by lotp 2008-01-02 12:13||   2008-01-02 12:13|| Front Page Top

#6 ahem:
¿forcing it to take pilots out of the air and shift them to remote flying duty to meet part of the demand? [said in husky whispered voice]

hummm...

"The bulk of the unmanned flight hours belong to the Army's workhorse drone, the Raven, which weighs just four pounds and is used by smaller units, such as companies and battalions, in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"The Army has a total of 361 unmanned aircraft in Iraq alone - including Shadows, Hunters and Ravens. And in the first 10 months of 2007, they flew more than 300,000 hours."

Correct me if ima wrong but only the Predator and Global Hawk rely on and regularly use of USA based operators.

I recognize there are several other UAVs.. special UAVs and Coalition UAVs that I didn't include, but their use in any volumn does not pull jet jockies down from the sky.

I believe this AP reporter has some numbers and fact problems woven thru & thru, but That isn't News is it LOL!, In fact it's the standard by which we filter every cotton picken article today.

feedback from those in the loop plz...
Posted by Lashkar-e-Dawg">Lashkar-e-Dawg  2008-01-02 13:41||   2008-01-02 13:41|| Front Page Top

#7 You'd think so ... but the Predator and Global Hawk class UAVs are flown by pilots

Sic transit gloria The Last Starfighter
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-01-02 15:57||   2008-01-02 15:57|| Front Page Top

#8 Don't forget the NAVY + even NASA.
Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-01-02 20:54||   2008-01-02 20:54|| Front Page Top

#9 In one recent example of what they can do, a Predator caught sight of three militants firing mortars at U.S. forces in November in Balad, Iraq. The drone fired an air-to-ground missile, killing the three, according to video footage the Air Force released.

Allahu akbar!
Posted by WTF 2008-01-02 23:14||   2008-01-02 23:14|| Front Page Top

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