British, U.S. Reaper operators fly joint Afghanistan mission

[Mugu]

INDIAN SPRINGS -- From the vantage point of a remotely piloted Reaper spy plane soaring 20,000 feet over southern Afghanistan, the terrain below looked harmless Monday, much like a GoogleEarth view of the gravel washes near Red Rock Canyon. There were mountains and valleys and bald fingers of high desert peninsulas jutting across the monitor of Lt. Col. Jon Greene's computer console.

"When we're over a target we loiter," he said. That's when the big lenses come into play, ones that let him see something the size of a car or a house as if peering through a straw. "We're in constant communication with ground forces," Greene said. "They're watching our video." Next to him sat the sensor operator, Royal Air Force Wing Commander Andy Jeffrey, the guy who would hold the laser beam on the target for bombs or Hellfire missiles that would rain down upon the target should that be necessary.

snip

"Currently we're working in infrared," Jeffrey said as he took a swig of water from a plastic bottle next to his seat. While an air conditioner inside the highly secured room blew cold air down the back of Jeffrey's olive-drab coveralls, the Royal Air Force Reaper was cruising 10,000 miles away at 160 mph.

It was dark, 10:30 at night in Afghanistan, but it was broad daylight outside the concrete-block ground control station at the small Nevada base, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.



http://www.lvrj.com/news/19483404.html">Complete article

[ConsAreLiars]

1. A true wet dream for cowards

who want to kill everything with no risk to themselves. These are monsters whose blood lust is matched only by their shameful cowardice. And the utter ignorance that assumes that the more you kill the safer you become.

(edit typo)