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Troops In Afghanistan Supplied By Robot Helicopter

Posted by samzenpus on from the johnny-copter dept.

Hugh Pickens writes writes "Pakistan is still blockading NATO war supplies passing through the port of Karachi in response to last month's killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers by an alliance air strike. But inside Afghanistan, supply lines are about to get a lot safer for NATO's logisticians as an unmanned helicopter just delivered a sling-load of beans, bullets, and band-aids to Marines at an undisclosed base in Afghanistan marking the first time a drone has been used to resupply a unit at war. The 2.5-ton, GPS-guided K-MAX can heft 3.5 tons of cargo about 250 miles up and over the rugged and mountainous terrain of Afghanistan across which NATO troops are scattered and can fly around the clock. 'Most of the [K-MAX] missions will be conducted at night and at higher altitudes,' says Marine Capt. Caleb Joiner, a K-MAX operator. 'This will allow us to keep out of small-arms range.' K-MAX will soon be joined in Afghanistan by Lockheed's robo jeep that can carry a half a ton of supplies for up to 125 miles after being delivered to the field in a CH-47 or CH-53 helo."

7 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. AMERICA FUCK YEA!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Meanwhile, my kid's school can't afford to hire enough teacher for every class.

    1. Re:AMERICA FUCK YEA!! by hawguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Protip: Don't believe everything the American Federation of Teachers says about necessary student:teacher ratios.

      THIS. "Teachers" lie, especially when it comes to how effective/efficient they are. ...Sure, the teachers need to get paid, the building needs to be kept in decent repair, but where the FUCK is all that money going? One place it goes is to the superintendent whose salary is probably well into the six figures, and they are probably doing a shitty job of managing (just ask the unions!)

      So your premise is that "Teachers lie" and to prove it, you use an example of an overpaid superintendent who teachers have no control over (and who is supposed to be in charge of the teachers).

    2. Re:AMERICA FUCK YEA!! by Anthony+Mouse · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I believe the point is that we have enough money going to the schools already, but it isn't going to the right places. So the solution is not "more money" but "stop wasting the money you already have."

    3. Re:AMERICA FUCK YEA!! by GreatBunzinni · · Score: 3, Insightful

      THIS. "Teachers" lie, especially when it comes to how effective/efficient they are. In the past 20 years, the "price" of education in the USA has gone up over 200% on a per-pupil basis (and the students sure as hell aren't 200% smarter to show for it).

      Do you know what it means for the price going up over 200% in 20 years? It means that the average inflation rate was around 3.5%. How is that such a shocking cost hike?

      --
      Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
    4. Re:AMERICA FUCK YEA!! by mjwx · · Score: 2, Insightful
      First off, you do know that teachers dont stop working at 3:30. Most are there from 7 and sometimes even 6 AM and dont finish up until 5 PM. What are they doing, marking, preparing for class and even cleaning up that they cant do when looking after 30 unruly children. During exam/reporting time they tend to work even more hours at home. Why do they do it for such low pay, well they actually want to teach. Yes I've lived with real teachers.

      I am sick and tired of every teacher givging excuses why they are home by 3:30 and have such excessive holidays.

      So you see school as some sort of cheap child care.

      Gubbermint, raise my chillin' for me.
      Gubbermint, stop teachin' my chillin' no liberal evilution crap.
      Gubbermint, gimme drugs to stop my chillin' from misbehavin'.

      You are the problem, not teachers.

      Here in Australia, it's idiotic parent's like you who prevent the teachers from doing their job. When precious little Johny Fucktard-Snowflake gets an F and suspension because he cant keep his hands of other students and doesn't do any classwork Mrs Fucktard-Snowflake marches her fat thighs into the principals office where she huffs and puffs and whines until the F turns into an A because little Johny is a precious snowflake and cant be treated in that fashion by a mere teacher. A teacher is not permitted to tell parents their crotchspawn is a right little shit because the parents will raise bloody hell over the mere question of their lack of parenting ability.

      So if your kid's report says "Johny needs to pay more attention in class" this is teacher code for YOU ARE THE FUCKTARD because this is the most critical thing they are allowed to write to parents.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  2. Re:So... by narkosys · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Never seen a K-Max have you: http://www.kamanaero.com/helicopters/kmax.html

    It is a very narrow single seat helicopter. It can carry heavy loads due to it using two main rotors as opposed to the usual main rotor/tail rotor combination. The ones in the story just happened to be modified to run unmanned.

    --
    seems to have misplaced his .sig
  3. Nice toys but... by nojayuk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A few things to note...

    These remote-piloted helicopters and "flying jeeps" are being deployed in testing because they are thought to be safer methods of resupply than an 11-B driving a truck. This indicates that in Afghanistan, after almost ten years of occupation (longer than the Soviets stayed) most of the country is considered too dangerous for the occupiers to move freely in.

    The second point is that these neat toys don't provide mass logistics supply to the forces in Afghanistan from friendly countries, the convoys of fuel tankers, food and ammunition, the thousands of tonnes of supplies needed each day to keep a modern military force operational. The US yahoos who blew up a bunch of Pakistani troops has cost the NATO forces that safe border convoy route and no technological tricks will restore that conduit. Abject apologies and reparations might help but this is the US who don't apologize for slaughtering other people's troops even by accident.

    Third point, following on from the second is keeping these remotely-piloted aircraft flying is expensive in fuel terms. A truck will burn ten or fifteen gallons of gas or fuel oil to get ten tonnes of supplies a hundred miles. A helicopter burns a lot more fuel to cover the same distance with a much smaller load, and the fuel convoys across the Pakistani border have been shut down after the "accident". The only way to get that fuel into Afghanistan now is to fly it into airbases and that's both a logistical nightmare and also dollar-expensive.