Poo Hunting in Iraq

Don't let the title be deceiving, I thought this was pretty interesting.

Link

The 'Poo Hunt': In an unconventional war, creative use of air power
BY: David Wood, Newhouse.com*
08/19/2005
Well before dawn one night in January, several dozen U.S. troops were creeping into position around an insurgent stronghold outside Baghdad when the commander's radio crackled to life: Four Iraqi men were escaping from a house several doors down, carrying weapons. The urgent voice on the radio gave the grid coordinates and a curt message: "I'm watching these guys."

That was the pilot of an F-16 streaking in a whisper thousands of feet overhead. Through his infrared targeting system, he could see the insurgents clearly. And he could talk directly to soldiers on the ground: Go down the block, turn right, 50 meters ahead of you ....

Mod Edit: Removed part of a complete copy paste and provided a link to the source.

[edit on 24-8-2005 by UM_Gazz]

It will be interesting to see if they can lower the costs by either equipping drones to do all of the work in spotting and following the insurgents, or just using cheaper aircraft with most of the same technology (an f-16 is expensive because it is fast, maneuverable and dangerous, but in this case a cessna with the same IF and laser designator systems probably would have been just as useful).

I wonder if the increasing numbers of UAV's will bring the costs down, cheap to make, fly and lose.

Unquestionably Advantageous Value

Originally posted by Netchicken
I wonder if the increasing numbers of UAV's will bring the costs down, cheap to make, fly and lose.

Indeed, you could buy a hell of a lot of UAV's for the price of a single F-16, pilot and the support they need.

Still, it's an interesting story. That would be pretty cool to have an F-16 spotlight the bad guys with a laser designator for you.