Experts Hit Wiki-Based News on UAVs

[unhappycamper]

Experts Hit Wiki-Based News on UAVs
August 06, 2010
Military.com|by Bryant Jordan

Of the roughly 75,000 reports from the Afghan War that WikiLeaks published on its whistleblower website more than a week ago only a handful -- just 16 according to WikiLeaks' own breakdown -- are reports specifically on unmanned aerial vehicles.

From those reports came stories of malfunctioning drones and an operation in which a Reaper fired a Hellfire missile on several insurgents. That one was dubbed "Hammer vs. Fly" by the New York Times.

But for all the attention focused on the war drones in the days after WikiLeaks posted its trove of documents, experts say the media coverage simply reported the obvious: that UAVs are used on combat ops; that some fire very powerful and expensive missiles and that the drones sometimes break down or malfunction.

~snip~

John Young said the Air Force's refusal to budget for auto-landing systems may be to blame for about 30 of the 60 Predators it had lost by the time he left the Pentagon in April 2009. He laid these losses partly on the Air Force's culture of insisting that a human pilot land the vehicle, when the job could be better performed by a computer.

~snip~

"Considering the alternatives, I think UAVs are an outstanding way of killing the enemy," he said. "They are surely less expensive than piloted fixed wing aircraft and can go places where I would just as soon not send people on foot. The (enemy) can shoot back at boots on the ground, but not UAVs."



unhappycamper comment: I didn't realize it, the AGM-65 costs around $160,000 a pop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-65_Maverick



Type Air-to-surface guided missile
Place of origin United States
Service history
In service August 1972–present
Used by See Operators
Production history
Manufacturer Hughes Aircraft Corporation; Raytheon Corporation
Unit cost Up to US$160,000
Specifications
Weight 466–670 lb (211–300 kg)
Length 8 feet 2 inches (2.49 m)<1>
Diameter 12 inches (300 mm)<1>
Warhead 125 pounds (57 kg) hollow charge with contact fuze in A, B, D and H models;
300 pounds (140 kg) high explosive penetrator with delayed fuze in E, F, G, J and K models
Engine Thiokol TX-481 dual-thrust solid propellant rocket motor
Wingspan 2 feet 4 inches (710 mm)
Operational
range 15 nmi (17 mi; 28 km)
Speed Mach 0.93
Guidance
system Electro-optical in A, B, H, J and K models; infrared imaging in D, F and G models; laser guided in E models