Article

2009-09-17 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Reaper goes out of control, shot down by fighter jet

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Posted by gromky 2009-09-17 06:09|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 It *is* programmed to return to its home location if comms are lost. That failed in some way.

It would not be prudent for it to cross international borders and give the Chinese an opportunity to make high profile demands re: a violation of their airspace. Nor would it be prudent to allow the Chinese to get hold of it and reverse engineer key elements.

There's a little more info here

Posted by lotp 2009-09-17 08:06|| 2009-09-17 08:06|| Front Page Top

#2 LOTP, do you know if the Predator/Reaper have triple/quad redundancy in it's flight controls or was that deleted to save weight?

Posted by ed 2009-09-17 08:43|| 2009-09-17 08:43|| Front Page Top

#3 The air force would not elaborate, but this could mean the aircraft would fly into Tajikistan, or China.

Unless it's bomb load had already been dropped, the downside please.

Posted by Besoeker 2009-09-17 08:50|| 2009-09-17 08:50|| Front Page Top

#4 Can it be that some country to the north has already learned how to "hack" the Reaper? That possibility is always what worries me about UAV's.

Posted by D McConnell">D McConnell 2009-09-17 09:00|| http://trinitariandon.blogspot.com]">[http://trinitariandon.blogspot.com] 2009-09-17 09:00|| Front Page Top

#5 Can it be that some country to the north has already learned how to "hack" the Reaper? That possibility is always what worries me about UAV's.

You don't need to hack it, you just need to jam the incoming signal. This event says that something larger than loss-of-signal was going on, though. Until we see this again, though, I would say malfunction.

Posted by Jame Retief 2009-09-17 09:49|| 2009-09-17 09:49|| Front Page Top

#6 Ed, I don't know. They are fly by wire, tho.

Jame, agreed.

Posted by lotp 2009-09-17 11:15|| 2009-09-17 11:15|| Front Page Top

#7 Either way, I'm glad we killed it instead of it flying away.

Hopefully the contractor figures out what went wrong.

Posted by DarthVader 2009-09-17 11:29|| 2009-09-17 11:29|| Front Page Top

#8 Sounds to me like a GPS failure on the Reaper.

Posted by 3dc 2009-09-17 11:43|| 2009-09-17 11:43|| Front Page Top

#9 it was a grim day for that reaper

Posted by 746 2009-09-17 13:29|| 2009-09-17 13:29|| Front Page Top

#10 Wow, maybe we can get some writer to jazz this up where they could make a movie about this, but with more explosions and perky women.

Posted by AlmostAnonymous5839">AlmostAnonymous5839 2009-09-17 15:56|| 2009-09-17 15:56|| Front Page Top

#11 I'm waiting 'till we get the 15-G capable wingman. take an f-22 on steroids, take out the pilot, and let the good times roll.

Posted by notascrename">notascrename 2009-09-17 16:53|| 2009-09-17 16:53|| Front Page Top

#12 And so it begins.

When unstoppable killer cyborgs from the future start showing up, don't say I didn't warn you.

Posted by SteveS 2009-09-17 17:02|| 2009-09-17 17:02|| Front Page Top

#13 When?

Posted by lotp 2009-09-17 18:04|| 2009-09-17 18:04|| Front Page Top

#14 Uh, actually two years from now. After being a strong advocate of autonomous killbots, I have a change of heart in 2011 and pen an impassioned rant here on the 'burg warning of the coming robo-apocalypse.

Posted by SteveS 2009-09-17 20:59|| 2009-09-17 20:59|| Front Page Top

#15 ;-)

Posted by lotp 2009-09-17 21:46|| 2009-09-17 21:46|| Front Page Top

#16 actually, it is finally reported by a NYT intern 10 days after the bots have killed the rest of us. But with an "Obama-Approved Program exceeds military expectations" spin

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-09-17 22:04|| 2009-09-17 22:04|| Front Page Top

#17 "You'd think it would be programmed to just go to its home location and land if it lost contact. Then again, this is a government job, so I'm not surprised."
Back in the day, the Flying Dorito had a system that allowed the GIB to punch a button in fhte GIF was incapacitated and the bird would fly to a set of coordinates where the GIB would initiate an eject sequence for both men (this was before the USN gave wimmins the right to fly in combat). Lost the bird, but got the crew.
and this was 1980's tech.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2009-09-17 23:08|| 2009-09-17 23:08|| Front Page Top

#18 'in fhte' is really Grummie-speak for 'if the'
but youse guys already knew that, right?

Posted by USN, Ret. 2009-09-17 23:11|| 2009-09-17 23:11|| Front Page Top

#19 First "I, ROBOT" now comes "I, REAPER"???

Posted by JosephMendiola">JosephMendiola 2009-09-17 23:25|| na]">[na] 2009-09-17 23:25|| Front Page Top

23:39 USN, Ret.
23:35 Cornsilk Blondie
23:31 JosephMendiola
23:25 USN, Ret.
23:25 JosephMendiola
23:22 Shinelet Bourbon2890
23:12 Woozle Uneter9007
23:11 USN, Ret.
23:08 USN, Ret.
22:57 Barbara Skolaut
22:56 Barbara Skolaut
22:56 Woozle Uneter9007
22:54 Barbara Skolaut
22:39 DMFD
22:32 DMFD
22:32 Anonymoose
22:26 lotp
22:17 DMFD
22:10 Nimble Spemble
22:04 Frank G
22:01 remoteman
21:51 lotp
21:47 Thing From Snowy Mountain
21:46 lotp