"Coming Soon: An Unblinking "Gorgon Stare" For Air Force Drones", page 1
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Topic started on 26-8-2009 @ 11:13 PM by sanchoearlyjones
Hi ATS,

I've not really been too interested in aviation, but the drones used have as of late caught my interest. Possibly because it seems like very cold Terminator like killing machines. Also, this article references only the US Air Force, but the drones as far as I'm aware are manned, and operated in a joint venture between the CIA, and Blackwater Xe.

Apparently Blackwater Xe has been involved for an undisclosed amount of time. Best I can tell they do Pre bomb mission recon, and also make mission specific bombs.

Now the drones have added new technology purported to make them all seeing eyes more, or less..

Enjoy.

www.popsci.com...



The military’s unblinking eye in the sky, which keeps watch over operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, is about to get even beadier. A new multi-camera sensor the U.S. Air Force is adding to its killer spy drones will exponentially broaden the area troops can monitor, and the technology lets a dozen users simultaneously grab different slices of the image. Called the Gorgon Stare, it represents the next big step in unmanned combat aircraft. Two MQ-9 Reapers retrofitted with the new $15 million wide-area aerial surveillance sensors, or WAAS, will fly test missions later this year, and the Air Force plans to have ten such planes in battle by next spring, in rotation on a 24/7 patrol. “It’s an incredible force enhancer,” said Colonel Eric Mathewson, Director of the service’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Task Force at the Pentagon. Sierra Nevada Corporation, makers of the WAAS, chose the name, a spooky reference to the cursed sisters from Greek mythology—Medusa being the Beyoncé of the trio—whose gaze turned men to stone.




Wake Up, Stand Up,

Sancho


reply posted on 27-8-2009 @ 12:42 AM by C0bzz
Fantastic technology.

The General Atomics Avenger (was Predator C) is even better. It can fly higher, much faster, is stealthier, and has Synthetic Aperture Radar.

Global Hawk is awesome too.



Also, this article references only the US Air Force, but the drones as far as I'm aware are manned, and operated in a joint venture between the CIA, and Blackwater Xe.

The majority of UAV aircraft are owned and operated by the USAF. A smaller amount is operated by the CIA and Xe, yes.


[edit on 27/8/2009 by C0bzz]


reply posted on 27-8-2009 @ 10:43 AM by Asktheanimals
reply to post by sanchoearlyjones


This only goes to remind me what we are headed totally towards, something I like to call "Woosie War". War is quickly becoming nothing more than a video game and all our kids are being well-trained from ages 3 on up. A war that isn't worth risking YOUR life for is a war that isn't worth fighting.

Had I been around back then I would've enlisted to fight in the civil war or ww2 (note NOT wwI, korea or vietnam). Those were IMO, the only american wars worth fighting other than the revolution and the war of 1812. Every other war was a war of imperialist expansion, plain and simple.

The Taliban must lick their lips every time they feel they're going in to combat against our troops on an even basis. Surely they must feel Americans are ...however you say pussies in pashtun. This is not to criticize our ground troops over in Afghanistan, hell, they're the only ones fighting for us (?) that have any real balls.

The future of warfare is tipping to a critical point where people won't matter - only machines, resources and technology will. God forgive us for the horrors we have created, this was never what science was supposed to do for mankind <---- I hate that word "mankind", what an oxymoron!
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