| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| U.S. Air Power Strikes Iraq Targets Daily |
| 2005-12-20 |
| Interesting tidbits: The number of U.S. airstrikes increased in the weeks leading up to last Thursday's election, from a monthly average of about 35 last summer to more than 60 in September and 120 or more in October and November. ... The role of the Air Force Predator is not secret but has been largely lost in the clutter of violence on the ground. At least five times this month an unmanned Predator flown remotely by airmen at flight consoles at an Air Force base in Nevada has struck targets in Iraq, mostly in insurgent strongholds in western Anbar province. Gen. Michael T. Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview with reporters at the Pentagon last Tuesday that Predators are attacking targets in either Iraq or Afghanistan 'almost every day.' He gave no details. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #17 Just in case anyone missed it: http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2005/12/best_and_worst_.html |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2005-12-20 18:38 |
| #16 All we have to do is combine our expertise with Japan's lead in robotics and we can wage war from the comforts of our own couch. I'm sure the Military can pay for the Coke, Doritos, and Cigarettes. |
| Posted by: danking_70 2005-12-20 17:27 |
| #15 Steve, you are actually right on target. The controllers for most remotely operated systems have to mimic the basic feel of a game controller. You know you've done a good job when a young Marine picks up your controller and basically gets right to business with about 5 words of basic, and I mean really basic, instruction. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2005-12-20 17:19 |
| #14 OP, tell you what, the controllers for the M-1, whatever they were then, NOW should be identical to a Nintendo/Xbox/Playstation controller. The game-box makers have done all the R & D, the Army just needs to adopt proven technology ;-) |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-12-20 15:25 |
| #13 I read an interesting article in Stars and Stripes when I was in Germany in the late 1980's. A general officer said that the best training his men got was playing video games, and they PAID to do it! It increases their reflexes, and in many cases the video game controls aren't that different from the find/identify/fire controls of an M-1 tank. I'm sure we're seeing similar effectiveness with gamers also flying Predators and other drone aircraft. BTW, the use of drones for reconnaissance isn't something new - we had drones in Vietnam. I saw quite a few VERY interesting photos from drone aircraft. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2005-12-20 14:35 |
| #12 I suspect we hear and see so little because we don't want to divulge the source of our targeting information nor exactly what happened to any specific target. In the upside down world of Ameircan War, failure is a topic for unlimited public debate and success to be defended by a bodyguard of lies. |
| Posted by: Thromp Threreling8978 2005-12-20 13:07 |
| #11 The operators suffer from Prop Lag. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-12-20 11:21 |
| #10 Lol, BH! Thar be beaucoup truth in them werdz. Sliding credit for, um, high "scores"... Yep. Drones pay the freight and the real aces actually make money. It could work, lol, cuz some of the kids I've seen are waay beyond what most folks mean by being "a natural" - they were born to it. Step aside, Tommy, lol. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-12-20 10:24 |
| #9 I say release the software as an XBox 360 cd and let the kids pay $19.95 a month to do it for us. We could actually turn a profit on this war. ;) |
| Posted by: BH 2005-12-20 10:17 |
| #8 Ptah I expect the flyers were early adopters of Flight Sim 3.0. They'd be able to adapt to 3 fps. |
| Posted by: Alpha Spemble1220 2005-12-20 10:13 |
| #7 Me too! I'd like more video. Imagine how many of those predators (with Hellfires of course) you could fit on the deck of the USS Reagan! |
| Posted by: BA 2005-12-20 09:50 |
| #6 damn, since the assbites know we use em, i wish the DOD would release more vids. |
| Posted by: Red Dog 2005-12-20 09:21 |
| #5 I admit that's per bounce - and for global it sometimes takes two, but... |
| Posted by: .com 2005-12-20 08:53 |
| #4 Ptah - 1/3 second for Geosynch round-trip worries you? |
| Posted by: .com 2005-12-20 08:49 |
| #3 Actually, TW's not far off from MY concern: satellite transmission delays. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2005-12-20 08:43 |
| #2 heehee. Maybe if they used prop powered drones, they wouldn't get jet lag. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2005-12-20 07:59 |
| #1 flown remotely by airmen at flight consoles at an Air Force base in Nevada Golly -- in Nevada! You'd think they'd suffer jet lag so far away... /really dumb, pre-coffee moment ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-12-20 07:52 |