(US) 23 years ago in 1995, the USAF ushered in the age of drone
warfare with its first active deployment of the MQ-1B Predator when it was used
over the skies. Whilst the use of UAVs wasn't new, the use of satellite
technology in which to allow controllers in the US to pilot the UAV remotely
and thus near to military and political leaders allowing real time answers to
real time situations revolutionised the battlefield. The US now had a system which
could monitor inaccessible areas 24 hours a day, with no risk to the person flying it, in fact
so impressed was the US, that it wasn’t long before they weaponised the Predator
and drones fitted with Hellfire missiles were flying over Afghanistan by the
latter part of 2001.
This ability to strike 24/7 in the middle of the enemies’
backyard soon earned the scorn of the do-gooders, the terrorists they champion and
the liberal media, who quickly demonised the use of UAVs as robotic warfare
which will result in unmanned killings. The irony here is that that each UAV
has 2 pilots, backed up by a team of advisors there in real time, one who must
have set foot on the ground in question. The go-head for any strike must be
given from the head of department. In otherwords never has there been more
people in the picture, plus (At the moment) UAVs don’t carry 2000lb bombs but
rather precision guided weapons which by their very nature have a much smaller
warhead. But hey its killings naughty people and to the left that is a crime.
data-lang="en-gb">Anyway, after almost 23 years of service, the USAF has finally retired the MQ-1B Predator to the history books .
The @usairforce MQ1 is officially retired. The contributions of the @USAF_ACC Predator and the Airmen behind it were honored during a #MQ1SunSet ceremony at Creech AFB today. Thank you for years of dedicated service and innovation! pic.twitter.com/PGyluw3VNT— Creech AFB (@Creech_AFB) 10 March 2018
