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Robots Go To War

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the somebody-forgot-the-first-law dept.

JKT writes: "According to The Times (of London): Predators, which can operate for 40 hours at a time ... can hover at up to 25,000ft, taking photographs in all types of weather, and at night with the use of infrared cameras ... For the first time in any operation, the Predators, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in San Diego, are also armed with Hellfire anti-tank missiles ... if a Predator spots a potential target, the ground operator can launch a Hellfire missile attack immediately." The article covers all the various pre-attack surveillance mechanisms, including special forces units of various countries. Interesting stuff, especially because it appears that one of those recon drones has already been shot down.

2 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Two Lost Over Iraq... by CrusadeR · · Score: 4, Informative
    Two Predator UAV's were lost over Iraq in just the past month:

    http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010911/ts/iraq_u sa_plane_dc_4.html

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A457 0-2001Aug27.html

    FAS has some more info on the bird here.

    --
    :wq
  2. More info by bihoy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually the range of the predator is limited more by the 1998 INF treaty than by their actual range.
    The treaty limits them to 5000 Km. I have not seen any info on their actually range which is no dount classified information.

    There is a nice write up (and picture) on this rather funky looking bird in this article.