Armchair pilots striking Afghanistan by remote control

Story Highlights
Pilots direct remote-control aircraft from Nevada base in combat 7,500 miles away

New drone, "the Reaper," carries the same bomb load as an F-16 fighter plane

Reapers have been flying round-the-clock patrols over Afghanistan since 2007

Air Force sees unmanned aircraft

By Laurie Ure
CNN


CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nevada (CNN) -- From a desert outpost northwest of Las Vegas, elite fighter pilots journey to a war zone in Afghanistan, some 7,500 miles away.


The Air Force's new unmanned bomber, the "Reaper," commutes from Nevada to Afghanistan.

It might be the world's longest commute, except that these armchair pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada never leave the air-conditioned comfort of their command center.

Air Force pilots are employing remotely controlled fighter-bomber aircraft -- known in military parlance as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs -- to fly combat missions over Afghanistan, hunting for insurgents bent on undermining Afghan President Hamid Karzai's fragile government.

This is the future of aerial combat.

Sitting in a virtual cockpit is not as exciting as flying a fighter jet, but unmanned attack-plane pilots can enjoy a normal workday schedule -- more or less.

"Seeing bad guys on the screen and watching them possibly get dispatched, and then going down to the Taco Bell for lunch, it's kind of surreal," says Captain Matt Dean.

The original drone was the "Predator," armed with a pair of Hellfire missiles. It was followed by its bigger and far more lethal cousin, "the Reaper," which carries four times as much firepower. The Reaper can carry the same bomb load as an F-16 fighter plane, but its pilots are not put in harm's way.

The Air Force once employed jerry-rigged missiles strapped to unmanned spy planes. Now military commanders see remotely piloted aircraft as the model for the way future wars will be fought.

Armchair pilots striking Afghanistan by remote control - CNN.com

just hook up the planes and bombs to xbox or ps3 games. i imagine quite a few of us could easily fly and drop those bombs/missiles right on target from our living rooms

edit - this is not a complete joke response. if we are getting to the ability to remote control like that, gamers could probably fairly easily hit quite a few targets. the only difference it would be more real time/real environment than a game, of course

I'm intersted to see when they develop mechanical "cockroachs" that can be dropped onto terrorists camps, and remotely guided to the sleeping quarters of bad guys, and inject them with deadly poison, then fry themselves to leave no working evidence.

And we just had a story in the news about a Afghan wedding being bombed and over 50 men, women, children and elderly at the wedding being killed. That is my reservation about doing the bombing on computers thousands of miles away.

The Afghan government wants us there but has previously threatened to kick us out of the civilian non combatants getting killed by airstrikes didn't stop.

I do like the efforts to de-man, in theory, but this is getting to be too much like a video game. Are we risking combat losing its seriousness (which is kind of a weird thig to be even asking, isn't it?)

Maybe it's good to eventually have our wars fought like Rock'Em/Sock'Em Robots. Although, isn't the point of war to inflict unacceptable losses on the enemy? In 50 years, maybe the first country will be taken over completely remotely.....?

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interesting... perhaps this will be the air force of the future... no overseas deployments... now if they can just do the same thing with the army and marines, we can bring our guys home to protect our own borders from the invading hordes...

sure might get a few of those war supporters who are too afraid to enlist now... to enlist.

sounds like an episode from The Twilight Zone... cue theme song now...

collateral damage happens in a war... and I seriously doubt the Afghan puppet government run by Hamid Karzi will do anything of the sort...


with the robots, are we taking the chance of creating real life Terminators?

ahhhh'll be bahhhhk...

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My Pep Talk For Lefties and Lurkers

I dunno. This kind of removes the emotional consequences from battle.

What about slowly plunging your combat knife into the enemy's stomach, and feeling the warm, sticky entrails ooze onto your arm as you watch the light dim from his eyes?

Er....um...I mean, sure, no problem!

But yes, I agree that this certainly eliminates the excuses for our country's beloved "101 Fighting Keyboardists" that were far too important here at home to enlist and put their money where their mouths are.

I'm sure the Air Force can provide a nice, soft ring for Rush Limbaugh to sit on, to protect his butt-cysts.

Perhaps recruitment officers are surfing these forums right now, and several of our members can expect to receive fom literature and a call or two....

Make money from home! "Last week, I greased 15,000 Ay-rabs!"

__________________
Memo to DC:
Quit screwing around and get it done, I don't care whose idea it was.
Right and wrong are obvious, as are ethics.
Do what we've hired you to do and lead.
Shut up and fix things. Now.

I don't see how whether the "pilot" is in the actual bomber, or on his sofa 8,000 miles away would have an impact on this. Considering how far they lanch their bombs from, they can't accurately see the target with their naked eye, they are relying on instriments to convey the information. So what is the difference in the information being conveyed to the cockpit, or the couch?

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the fact that YOU, as the pilot, aren't in danger... except from perhaps getting salmonella poisoning from that Taco Bell down the street...

what better way for today's patriots to serve their country... sitting on their fat butts on the couch playing video games...

no danger... no muss... no fuss...

I expect that there will be a rush of young republicans trying to enlist now...

__________________
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
~~Socrates

My Pep Talk For Lefties and Lurkers

As long as their medals of valor are "virtual" as well.

Still, PTSD is hard to diagnose, whereas carpal tunnel syndrome is not, so that will at least be a savings. If you start getting shellshocked, er, eye fatigue, I'm sure you can hit pause, get up, and grab a Dew.

I can't decide if making war easier and lazier is a step in the right direction or not. Since we're already the fattest, laziest nation on earth, if we ever got invaded, our military wouldn't be able to haul itself off its camouflage bean-bag chairs to even run......

On the other hand, it makes diplomacy easier. We could just send Iraq a text message: "LOL U GOT PWN3D!! WE ROXORZ!!111"

__________________
Memo to DC:
Quit screwing around and get it done, I don't care whose idea it was.
Right and wrong are obvious, as are ethics.
Do what we've hired you to do and lead.
Shut up and fix things. Now.