PREDATOR DRONE SERIES

Its cloud-like mind will leverage feeds from the multitude of sensors carried by its individual UCAVs, all spread over a wide area. In fact, under certain circumstances enemy fighters may be an easier threat for UCAVs to deal with than those emanating from the ground.Įnemy aircraft would have a very hard time remaining undetected in airspace that an operational swarm of UCAVs is operating in. The same swarm technology applies to the air-to-air realm as it does to attacking pop-up SAM sites. Yet maybe what at face value seems like a loss for the USAF was in fact exactly the outcome they wanted as that was the last time Iraqi fighters ever pushed an intercept on an unmanned US drone.Īnd that my friends is how the future of unmanned air-to-air combat was born…'įor so long UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles-stealthy and advanced fighter sized drones) have been seen as strictly deep strike and surveillance platforms, but when networked together, they could offer an incredible counter-air capability.Įven the subsonic and less than highly maneuverable but very stealthy flying-wing UCAV configurations that we know of today could be absolutely devastating when it comes to sanitizing enemy airspace. Surely the Iraqi MiG-25 pilot must have been amazed when he saw what amounts to a seemingly defenseless, glorified radio controlled plane shoot back at his mach three capable interceptor. Just like a classic gunfighter’s standoff, the guy that was able to shoot first lived to fight another day, just barely averting mutual destruction. In the end the little Predator, pretty much the slowest and lightest combat aircraft in the USAF’s inventory, was brought down by a massive MiG-25, the heaviest and fastest fighter in the Iraqi Air Force at the time. The Iraqi MiG-25 Foxbat missile’s hot exhaust confused the Stinger’s infra-red seeker which sent it astray. Thus the Predator fired its missile while the Iraqi’s shot was well on its way. The MiG-25 is thought to have fired a medium range AA-6 “Acrid” air-to-air missile at a relatively close distance from the diminutive Predator, although still at a long enough distance that the Predator’s AIM-92’s could not lock onto the massive MiG’s heat signature. This is where the video posted below comes into play, you see these were no normal RQ-1 Predators, they were in fact armed with a pair of AIM-92 heat-seeking “Stinger” missiles. Instead it made an intercept course for the fast-flying MiG-25. Over time a cat and mouse game ensued, until one day the Predator did not run. The US recognized the increase in Iraqi brazenness and devised a plan to first bait and subsequently deter Iraqi aggression towards unmanned aerial vehicles.Īt first the Predators would bait the Iraqi fighters to violate the no fly zone boundary and then they would run.

PREDATOR DRONE SERIES

At the time, less than a decade ago, the USAF only had a small inventory Predators, less than two-dozen to be mores specific, compared with today where well over 200 Q-1 and Q-9 series of unmanned aircraft fly for the USAF.įrom what I have heard about this unique footnote in military aviation history is that it was somewhat common that MiG-25 Foxbats would make slashing incursions across the no fly zone boundaries, especially when US unmanned aircraft were operating in the areas and when coalition AWACs coverage was offline. At the same time, America was continuing to realize the true value of the General Atomics Q-1 series of unmanned aircraft. It just seemed crystal clear that war was on its way no-matter what really happened. IAEA inspectors were frustrated, the US had assets literally pouring into the region, and the long-established no fly zones were still firmly in place over northern and southern Iraq.Īs tensions increased Saddam’s forces became more emblazoned and defiant towards coalition aerial patrols. 'By 2002 the saber-rattling between the Bush Administration and Saddam’s gang of war criminals and military puppets (who can every forget goons like “Baghdad Bob,” Tariq Aziz, and “Chemical” Ali?) had reached a thundering crescendo.

Predator drone