US Drone crashes in Pakistan- Jan 24 !!!

[XYON]

Not entirely unreasonable.

The US "accidently" crashes a drone, thereby giving the technology to Pakistan without the Indians throwing a tantrum.

Why crash it when you can hand-it over ''covertly''?

Rahimullah Yusufzai is to be believed unless he was there to witness the event with his own eyes. UAV and UCAV's are all-weather birds and have in them the mini Synthetic Aperture Radar or SAR that can pierce clouds, smoke, bad weather etc to give a clear picture on ground. So essentially these UAV's do not have to fly low to observe since that would go against their philosophy of usage. Hence, the reason strengthens that this UAV may have developed some technical fault and on its way down to crash it may have been shot at by the Talibaans with either 12.7mm AA or the AK-47!! Since the TTP turban-heads cannot tell the difference between one hi-tech or the other i have serious reservations to their claim of actually shooting down the said UAV.

Secondly, the US has the ability to recover the wreckage from behind enemy lines or completely destroy it by firing the missiles from another Predator. All said and done, it will NOT end up in the hands of the Talibaan let alone the Pakistan Army.

 

[waraich66]

Why crash it when you can hand-it over ''covertly''?

Rahimullah Yusufzai is to be believed unless he was there to witness the event with his own eyes. UAV and UCAV's are all-weather birds and have in them the mini Synthetic Aperture Radar or SAR that can pierce clouds, smoke, bad weather etc to give a clear picture on ground. So essentially these UAV's do not have to fly low to observe since that would go against their philosophy of usage. Hence, the reason strengthens that this UAV may have developed some technical fault and on its way down to crash it may have been shot at by the Talibaans with either 12.7mm AA or the AK-47!! Since the TTP turban-heads cannot tell the difference between one hi-tech or the other i have serious reservations to their claim of actually shooting down the said UAV.

Secondly, the US has the ability to recover the wreckage from behind enemy lines or completely destroy it by firing the missiles from another Predator. All said and done, it will NOT end up in the hands of the Talibaan let alone the Pakistan Army.

Can it fire from 30000 ft or it has to come down to hit the target ?

 

[azfar]

Does US has demanded the wreckage like earlier?

 

[waraich66]

Taliban reward fighter for ‘shooting down US drone’




Tuesday, January 26, 2010

By Malik Mumtaz Khan & Mushtaq Yusufzai

MIRAMSHAH/PESHAWAR: The Taliban in North Waziristan on Monday rewarded one of their fighters with a new model car for shooting down the US drone on Sunday evening.

Also, government officials in the restive tribal region finally confirmed the downing of the US spy aircraft by the Taliban militants. The militants led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur claimed shooting down the drone in Hamzoni village on Sunday.

Tribal sources in Miramshah said the militants congratulated each other on Monday for shooting down the drone, known as ‘Bangana’ locally due to the thundering sound of the pilot-less aircraft.

The militant was given a new car by the Taliban leaders as reward to shoot down the drone. The militants from adjoining villages thronged Hamzoni to have a look at the wreckage of the drone. The militants wanted to meet and congratulate their fellow fighter, who accurately fired and hit the spy plane to the ground.

Taliban sources confirmed the man behind the downing of the drone had been gifted a car, but declined to name the fighter. They said he would be remembered as a ‘hero’ among the Taliban. “The shooting down of the drone has lifted the morale of our fighters. It’s a huge success for the poorly armed Taliban against a powerful enemy,” remarked a senior Taliban commander pleading anonymity.

 

[forcetrip]

Taliban Neelam Ghaar going on up there ..

 

[XYON]

Can it fire from 30000 ft or it has to come down to hit the target ?

The Predator UCAV can engage a target with Hellfire (fire and forget) missile from a height of 2-3 kms and a distance of 6-8 kms. That height & distance is more than enough to eliminate visual and acoustic detection. It only occasionally comes down to do target BDA (Battle Damage Assessment), if there are no smaller UAV's airborne in the area to do the same thing.

 

[XYON]

Taliban reward fighter for ‘shooting down US drone’




Tuesday, January 26, 2010

By Malik Mumtaz Khan & Mushtaq Yusufzai

MIRAMSHAH/PESHAWAR: The Taliban in North Waziristan on Monday rewarded one of their fighters with a new model car for shooting down the US drone on Sunday evening.

Also, government officials in the restive tribal region finally confirmed the downing of the US spy aircraft by the Taliban militants. The militants led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur claimed shooting down the drone in Hamzoni village on Sunday.

Tribal sources in Miramshah said the militants congratulated each other on Monday for shooting down the drone, known as ‘Bangana’ locally due to the thundering sound of the pilot-less aircraft.

The militant was given a new car by the Taliban leaders as reward to shoot down the drone. The militants from adjoining villages thronged Hamzoni to have a look at the wreckage of the drone. The militants wanted to meet and congratulate their fellow fighter, who accurately fired and hit the spy plane to the ground.

Taliban sources confirmed the man behind the downing of the drone had been gifted a car, but declined to name the fighter. They said he would be remembered as a ‘hero’ among the Taliban. “The shooting down of the drone has lifted the morale of our fighters. It’s a huge success for the poorly armed Taliban against a powerful enemy,” remarked a senior Taliban commander pleading anonymity.

Check the Car papers!! It must be stolen from Peshawar to be prepped for a suicide bomb mission!! The registration number on that car is TTP 420

 

[XYON]

Does US has demanded the wreckage like earlier?

The US cannot 'demand' the handing over of the wreckage as they have already retrieved it the same night of the crash through their Team Delta Special Forces tasked to do this kind of behind-enemy lines job. Otherwise, if the Talibaan would have had the UAV wreckage, they would have invited Al-Jazerra to film it & gloat over it!

 

[Cheetah786]

The US cannot 'demand' the handing over of the wreckage as they have already retrieved it the same night of the crash through their Team Delta Special Forces tasked to do this kind of behind-enemy lines job. Otherwise, if the Talibaan would have had the UAV wreckage, they would have invited Al-Jazerra to film it & gloat over it!

3

. Pakistan Army will not be able to recover the wreckage. US Special Forces Team Delta, which is tasked for such recoveries of wreckages, may infiltrate the broder tonight, recover the wreckage and be gone even before Talibaan or anyone else for that matter reaches the spot of the crash. Alternatively if the wreckage cannot be recovered, the US will completely destroy it by firing multiple Hellfire missiles off a Predator (good target practices I guess!) so that nothing can be salvaged except for burnt out metal and plastic.

You do realize Predators or other drones are flying in our territory with Our Governments permission and not because they can any adventures by So called Delta force into Pakistani Territory will be considered hostile and dealt with in same manor we are Not talking about Hollywood movie here.

I take it you were one advisor to George Bush sir we can take Iraq in few days Sir Afghanistan will be a walk in the park sir delta force will finish it before the even no About it

 

[PAFAce]

This news just completely died. Does anybody know what became of the downed drone?

You do realize Predators or other drones are flying in our territory with Our Governments permission and not because they can any adventures by So called Delta force into Pakistani Territory will be considered hostile and dealt with in same manor we are Not talking about Hollywood movie here.

According to an ex NATO official, American Special Operations teams have carried out covert operations inside Pakistani territory before without prior or subsequent information. That last such incident, according to him, occured in 2008. If you remember, there was an attack on Sept 3, 2008 just along the Afghan border (widely reported) in which US Special Forces attacked a supposed Al-Qaeda hideout (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/world/asia/04attack.html). The same month, Frontier Corps squashed another attempt to carry out an attack from across the Durand Line by firind in the air and on nearby hills to warn the advancing Americans (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7396366.stm).

Here is the opening sentence from an article by The Guardian:
A former Nato officer says multiple incursions into Pakistan's tribal areas by US special forces occurred between 2003 and 2008 but the Pakistanis 'were kept entirely in the dark about it'.
Source: http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs...G/912239995/1009/life?template=globalbriefing

Basically, in August Musharraf resigned as President, and in September the Americans tried to test the waters to see if the present government/army leadership would be more "liberal" towards their sovereignty. Kayani stamped his foot, and we haven't heard about any other attempts since (hopefully this means none have occured).

My point simply is, it has happened before. I don't know where this drone went down, so I can't say how likely it is that the Americans would try to recover it (more than a few kilometers from the border). I was expecting the SSW commandos to get there, recover it and send it back over the Line ASAP, without raising suspicion over its possible reverse engineering. Of course, I also expected the Americans to bomb the downed aircraft to smithereens, but no reports confirm that.

Maybe that's what happened, it seems likely. But how could this story just disappear, especially after all the broo-ha-ha over the Shadow drones?