USAF - 5.7 billion for 144 Predator's, page 1

It appears that the Air Force really like its UAV's. In the coming years they plan on buying 144 more Predators... It doesn't yet say what version (A or B), but i'm sure the majority will be A's.

Made buy General Atomics the Predator A has a cieling of 25,000 feet and cruises at 140 mph, and can stay aloft for 40 hours, and can also carry 2 Hellfire anti-tank missiles.

Predator boost

USAF wants 144

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper told Congress last month that he wants to buy every Predator robotic spy plane that San Diego's General Atomics Aeronautical Systems can possibly build.

The U.S. Air Force has accepted 114 Predators as of last month, according to Master Sgt. Dawn L. Collazo, a spokeswoman for the Air Combat Command at Langley, Va.

The Air Force has lost 26 Predators in combat since 2002, when stepped-up operations began in Afghanistan and Iraq, Collazo said. The Air Force previously acknowledged losing 20 aircraft, which brings the overall losses of the unmanned aircraft to 46 – or roughly a third of total production.

Sounds like its a little crash prone. But for 4 million a piece its not to big of a deal.

The service intends to expand its fleet of Predators from the current three squadrons to 15. Such an expansion could make the Predator one of the largest fleets in the Air Force inventory.

As of last month the AF has recieved 114, but 46 have crashed, that makes the Air Forces current number at 68, last month the AF said they are taking some money out of there maintainence budget to buy 15 predators, and now they are planning on buying 144 more, so if no more crash (doubtfull), they will have 227 Predators. They are planning on having 15 squadrons each with 12 Predators. that makes the number 180...so at least there allready planning on future crashes, although i'm not sure if that a good or bad thing.

I like the predator, and I think this is a good move on the Air Forces part. One of the roles for the JSF F-35 is to replace the A-10...It seems that the Predators could do that job with their hellfires.

The Predator B