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Meet the Men Who Deploy Airstrikes
Lanxon writes "Wired followed US Army Staff Sergeant Kevin Rosner into Afghanistan to see first-hand the tools, tactics, and pressures involved in coordinating military airstrikes. This lengthy piece explores the people and technology involved in high-risk airborne warfare, from their perspective. From the article: 'Strapped to his chest, Rosner carries a handheld video player called a "Rover," built by L3 Communications, a New York-based defense contractor. The device, the size and shape of a PSP game console and costing tens of thousands of dollars, reads signals transmitted by the camera pods strapped to the underside of all NATO fighter aircraft. With his Rover, Rosner can see everything a pilot sees, from the pilot's perspective. On his back he carries a radio programmed with secure frequencies that tie him directly to the pilots overhead and to his unit's headquarters, several miles away. At the headquarters, another JTAC monitors a bigger, more sophisticated video terminal that displays the same video Rosner sees, plus other data.'"
"High risk airborne warfare" ???? Are you afraid that an afghan made A4-paper-plane may shot down a N-billion dollar (tax-payer-paid) fighter?? Wake-up first-world guys!! And jokes about civil casualties are easy if you're 10 steps away of your full fridge and 10 minutes away from a super-if-you-have-the-money-market.
La culpa no es del chancho...
It'd be nice if the young boys would stop enlisting to begin with.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
How good do you have to be to shoot down rusty Soviet cast-offs and bomb weddings? The US air-force is probably the safest job in military history.
Considering the hardware I find it peculiar that they kill so many civilians. I guess the people meant to limit the amount of false positives are basically hillbillies. I guess good hardware has no effect as long as you do not train your forces to fight fair. No amount of "freedom" or technology can explain away the fact that the largest army on the planet are still basically just killing for fun / at random. I hope those stupid oil-/gass-wars end soon. I wonder if they would have if we invested all the money we currently invest in those wars in alternative energy. Considering that they evidentially have the needed technology to avoid civilian casualties; I guess not. :/
This is the kind of info that should be classified and not be made public in so much detail.
Next we will be seeing car bombs outside the offices of L3 and any other organizations mentioned.
Why make the terrorists jobs easier?
You're an idiot if you really believe that. Al Gore just bought another mansion. Think about it.
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.