Huthi rebels take down a MQ-9 Reaper

A recent video posted to twitter show what appears to be a MQ-9 Reaper having been shot down by the Huthi rebels. If so is the US directly involved now with assisting the House of Sauds war in yemen? Lets face it the Saudi's conduct is starting to look more and more like genocide.

gizmodo.com...

a reply to: FredT

The US has been involved in Yemen for awhile now. It's been an open secret that we're flying missions there, both manned and unmanned, for years.

A decade or so ago this would be an international incident because a pilot would now be down somewhere very bad...

Now it seems like nobody cares we were somewhere we were not really supposed to be since all we lost was a few million dollars in a drone.

Stupid question. How would they take the drone out? I'd assume the drone would be flying at a high altitude and would any hand held surface to air missile be able to lock onto such a small object? AA gun perhaps ? Genuine question .. just curious

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

Reapers are in the MALE family, meaning they're medium altitude aircraft. While they can get as high as 50,000 feet, they operate well below that on missions. There are a few MANPADS that can reach up to where they operate, and any kind of true SAM can hit them.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Do many drones operate at a medium height if so I'd expect more to be shot down. But I suppose that depends on those on the ground whether they have access to SAMs or MANPADS

I suppose their operating height depends on their mission

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

Aircraft like the Reaper are designed to operate in low to medium threat areas, like Afghanistan and Iraq. That's one reason they operate at lower altitudes. Most are actually considered MALE aircraft though. It's not easy to build a true HALE aircraft.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Thanks again for the insight. I was going to ask the meaning of MALE and HALE .. MALE being Medium Altitude Long Endurance and HALE being High Altitude Long Endurance. Wow I actually looked something up myself for once

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

When you get into a HALE platform, you're getting into really high end sensors, and strategic ISR, which is something most nations don't need nearly as much as they do tactical ISR. So there aren't many HALE platforms in use.

a reply to: FredT
Oh yea, I meant to get back to this. I figured someone would hit it eventually.
Well, that's why we have them unmanned, in case this happens!

a reply to: FredT

We had/have a substantial done base in the south of the ariban desert, I know it was said it's a open secret, but maybe it's just my involvent in the aerospace sphear

a reply to: penroc3

There were several threads about our operations in Africa a couple years ago.

Praise Kek

a reply to: penroc3
Djibouti. The government terminated a lease on another parcel there and awarded it to the Chinese. We still fly drones and support AMISOM out of there though.

Wouldnt have thought an MQ-9 put out much of a heat signature, wonder how many they have fired over the years to get this one kill??

a reply to: Zaphod58

Africa is such a s-itshow i would hate to get posted there, i guess it would be....okay....in the extreme north but i'd rather go pretty much anywhere else

So, how did we get dragged into this one? I've been following the Syrian war all along, but Yemen has largely slipped under my radar.

A quick check of Wikipedia shows that the Houthis are predominantly Shiite.

So yes, this most definitely is genocide, courtesy of our "allies" the Saudis.

they've been involved since the word "go".

a reply to: Zaphod58

I'd imagine that it's not much harder than shooting down a PC-12 or a TBM with a MANPAD would be.

The Predator/Reaper family are exactly as cheap/disposable as they are because of the vulnerable flight envelope/mission plans that they fly.