On the Hunt

The largely silent predator hunts for jihadists from as high as 25,000 feet, and is responsible for making a number of high value, "perishable" targets disappear. It is armed with two AGM-114 hellfire missiles carrying 20 lb warheads.

Its bigger, faster brother the MQ-9 Reaper hunts the skies of Afghanistan, and will soon be in Iraq. Deployed only in October of 2007 news on the Reaper is scarce. There was a confirmed hit on a group of enemy motorcycles from February 24th. The reaper is armed with a combination of Hellfires and GBU-12 laser guided and GBU-38 GPS guided bombs. It can carry payloads up to 3,750lbs (1,701kgs). That amounts to four Hellfires and 2 GBU-12s or GBU-38s. That's a whole lot'a butt kicking there. Can't wait to see video.

Anyway, here we have a predator catching a terrorist in the act. Keep in mind, the footage released to the public is low-res and compressed. It's hard to tell what the guy is really doing, but you can be sure they saw exactly what was going on. They don't release the high-res images for public consumption. They don't want us to know how good the video really is.


US Airforce UAV Airstrike on insurgents planting IED in Iraq