U.S.

Unmanned Bombers Over Afghanistan

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 18, 2001 / 2:05 PM EDT / CBS

An unmanned American spy plane armed with missiles has been used for the first time in combat missions over Afghanistan, defense officials said Thursday.

The low-flying RQ-1 Predator, previously used only for reconnaissance, is carrying Hellfire anti-tank missiles, two officials said on condition of anonymity.

The unarmed version of the aircraft was used extensively in support of NATO forces in the Balkans, then tested for the attack mission.

"It is a first, a small revolution. It's certainly not widespread or overwhelming, but we have said nothing is ruled out" in the U.S. war on terrorism, said one of the officials, who asked not to be identified.

Defense experts have called such a move a first step toward perhaps one day building unmanned, long-range bombers that carry dozens of missiles and bombs to overseas targets without risking human crews.

Operated remotely, its main value as an armed vehicle is that it can be used to strike quickly because it is collecting near real-time intelligence. The Predator without missiles relays information, which then must be acted on by pilots or cruise missile commanders at a later time.

The armed drone also makes it possible to strike without putting a pilot in harm's way.

The Predator carries two color video cameras and can remain airborne for more than 40 hours. It can provide information via satellites with near-real time video.

The use of Predators in Afghanistan was first reported over the weekend in the New Yorker magazine, which said a CIA-operated drone had intelligence on Taliban leader Mohammed Omar, but could not get permission from military commanders to fire.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that previously unarmed $3.2 million Predators, while taking off and landing at bases near Afghanistan, were being controlled by operators thousands of miles away in the United States.

The use of unmanned aircraft has become an increasingly common tool for U.S. intelligence-gathering operations. Predators have been used extensively for reconnaissance over Iraq and previously over the Balkans. Baghdad's forces claim to have shot down at least three of the slow and low-flying spy planes.

In more than 12 days of airstrikes against the Taliban and the al-Qaida terrorist network, the Pentagon has acknowledges the use of Tomahawk cruise missiles, bombers from Navy aircraft carriers and long-range Air Force bombers, but they have not publicly spoken about the Predator.

One defense official indicated the Predator was not being operated by the Pentagon in recent days.

Another defense official, asked how many such aircraft were deployed, said a few were in use.

An Air Force spokeswoman said Thursday that the service now had 55 of the Predators after losing 19 others. Defense officials have expressed concern over the dwindling number and want to speed up production by General Atomics Aeronautical
Systems Inc.

Arming the small number of predators, which ar 27 feet long with a wingspan of 48.7 feet for stability in flight, being used in Afghanistan will not make a major difference in battle because they cannot carry heavy payloads of weapons.

But the Predators, pushed by a propeller mounted on the tail, can seek out and attack specific targets with night-vision and other technology sensors during up to 24 hours of flight.

Meanwhile, the Air Force is already testing the bigger RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned drone, a much longer-range surveillance aircraft built by Northrop Grumman Corp. One of those drones this flew flew 8,600 miles from the United States to Australia.

The Air Force has refused to comment on reports that it is currently experimenting with arming the Global Hawk.