Why do we announce this to our enemies?

What ever happened to utilizing the element of surprise to our advantage?

I would like to buy five of these myself. I like firepower... and the idea of putting fear in the eyes of an infidel that calls himself Al Qaeda.

We could use about 10 of these on the Mexican border.

Hey Brian, is that you on the phone to osama? you left wing America Hater.You going to have tea with Osama later to discuss any new military secrets we have. There are some things people don't need to know

It doesn't matter that we announce the Reaper. It is flying so high that the enemy won't know its' there until the hellfire missile drops into their cave they call a house.....

I wish we had 5x of the basic predators to this newer machine. If each Green Berets company had one, alllll the time overhead, then they'd be be uniquely situationally-aware. The pentagon is burned up spending our future generations' money, and always gonna make an excuse that they need more, like a bad house painter.

This should certainly win the hearts and minds of the Afghanis.... when will we EVER learn?

yea out me down for one also......i want to kick some AQ ass

To: Just Wondering

As to announcing this to the enemies, I would bet money that the Reaper fleet is already there...

1/3 of all military (ground only?) vehichles are to be unmanned by 2015. It's the law. The era of the killbot. I say why not? Check out the DARPA Urban Challenge.

To Just Wondering... What exactly are we announcing? That we're deploying an plane that enemy can't see to fire missles or bombs that they can't hide from into their backyard.... Announcing this is a problem why?!?

Let's send one for every American killed and there will be no more problems with militants in the mountains. Cheaper than all those boots on the ground.

We also need a special version that homes in on the stink and hot air created by liberal bloggers.

Dat Reaper is sweet yo!

We sure save our enemies a lot of budget money for spies. We just tell everyone what we are doing. Wish Osama was as generous and just announce where he is hiding.

Use it in the Pakistani border & clean that place out.

What a waste of our money. Don't you just wish you could get these guys in a room. Man to man. And slap the Hellfire out of them.

And ask them "what the Hellfire do you think your doing." Idiots!! :-(

WE ARE fightning smarter thats for sure!
10 years ago congress & the President would NEVER see spending on that.BUT the war has brought us to OUR senses.And with that NEW v(hulled)-shaped fighting vehicle WE ARE FIGHTING SMARTER.And its all for the LONG RUN.Because these idiots won't go away soon.

There's no question in my mind that we're already taking bids from our enemies for this equipment. Just think about the technology we've already given the Saudis, the Egyptians, the Iranians, etc.
The American media are our enemies!

Why does the news media constantly feel they have to tip our hand to the enemy?

I am in "Shock and Awe" at the expense of this war.

To those of you who are upset that ABC News has run this story on new weaponry, relax. Understand what the military's public affairs office does. You can go to the Air Force's own website and there's a page with a profile of the aircraft for all to read. It's really no secret. Again, the story doesn't impede the weapon's effectiveness; it's victims will not know a Hellcat ATG missile is coming at them...

The military option should be THE LAST ALTERNATIVE. Sending these things into a foreign nation is a sure fire recipe to generate MORE anti-US sentiment. Sure there are folks there who hate this nation... but there are folks EVERYWHERE who hate this nation, or are by virtue of their actions, destroying this nation such as the misguided right-wing of our government who are driving this nation right into an early grave.

"It doesn't matter that we announce the Reaper. It is flying so high that the enemy won't know it's there until the hellfire missile drops into their cave they call a house....."

To RJP -

I repeat - Why do we announce this to our enemies?
What ever happened to utilizing the element of surprise to our advantage? Why should we give them the opportunity to go even deeper into their caves and/or spend more time in their caves making it more difficult to kill them? Do you have a problem with the concept of using the element of surprise to our advantage? Is there some advantage that I'm missing in annoucing this weapon in advance of using it?

Well what good is it having these toys if you don't get to use them? Hey! Did anybody see any of the Terminator movies?

Just Wondering, the advantage of announcing this stuff is for psychological terror or warfare, whichever you choose to refer to it as. I'm sure we wouldn't be involved in terror of any kind, however. (snic)

I can't beleive all of you who think that this flying piece of crap is so great!!!...This isn't going to end the war or even slow it down!!..It's a waste of our money!!!

One reason why the expense is worth it is not mentioned in this article. This system can engage AQI/Taliban where US troops are not permitted [at least officially], in Pakistan.

I always figured Bin Laden would be 'found' just when it could be most beneficial to Bush and his cronnies.

Forget just being sent, Reapers are already over in that Sewer. Osama Bend Over is the poster boy of the U.S military - Industrial complex. They love the guy.

Don't you remember (ww2) loose lips sink ships

You can bet your bottom dollar that they've been deployed for some time now. Go get 'em. What better way to give them what they want...martyrdom.

Just more poor innocent civilians killed. By the powerful Deathstar. The Great Satan. The Republican Guard.

When are you people going to get it. We are not the good guys. We are the bad guys. And obi wan kenobi (OBL)and is Jedi warriors are going to stop us.

"Don't you remember (WW2) - loose lips sink ships?"

To Farancis Shean -

Too bad more people don't seem to remember that concept!

Gearbox => That works out pretty well all around because Dubbya is the poster boy for AQ's recruiting efforts. Kinda' like a snake biting it's tail, ain't it?

We have the M-1 tank, B-1 and B-2 bombers, bombs that are smarter than our president and victory isn't in sight any time soon. The enemy are alive and well in Pakistan. We are winning over the Afghan peoples. We kill 50 civilians to get 20 terrorist. Why don't these people love us? It's the same crap with a different name. This weapon doesn't kill any better than a AC 130. This enemy doesn't have ADA, SAM's or the Tor-M-1. Rarely does a helicopter get shot down. This is Bush's way of giving dummies something to cheer about.

To all you armchair generals out there screaming mad that this is being revealed...you should stick to munching cheetos and watching Sean Hannity on TV. The US military has weapons you can't even begin to dream of...that aren't EVER announced publicly. You think this is their state-of-the-art? You know NOTHING. You're NAIVE.

War is different now, our enemies already know more than we do and they most likely knew about this already. Also the psychological effect on our lower echelon enemies is valuable as well. If this thing does as it is claimed to be able to, then it should save American lives and that is (to coin a phrase) “priceless”.

In Response to ArmyMom 's comment.

You are so correct. Marry me :P

The Reaper wouldn't be any more useful in the tribal areas since, if U.S. forces aren't allowed there, U.S. forces aren't allowed to shoot into there either. It'd cause a diplomatic ruckus.

As for the effectiveness of the Reaper.. pffft. Just an expensive toy that won't win the war. Big bombs and missiles are great if you have a target. The current Predators carry two Hellfires, and they don't fire them the vast majority of the time. The Reaper would simply be carrying more payload and burning fuel doing the same thing.

We need more actionable intelligence on where AQ is; that's where we need to be spending the money. We've already got enough firepower in the region to blow the living snot out of any enemy we manage tolocate.

Woo Hoo! Pakistan here we come! Look out Osama,

Read the article, people. "GENERAL MOSELY" made an announcement to ABC News! This suggests to me that for what ever reason, they wanted the information out (or maybe it's misinformation)

This Administration just doesn't get it. Introducing yet another war machine into the Afghanistan theater of operations, in lieu of facing the realities of a failed policy, is a mere diversion and another publicity stunt to mislead the American people. If Mr. Bush had spend his time more wisely rather than rushing into these wars, he would have read the Soviet account of its 10 year failure in Afghanistan. The Soviets applied greater means than the United States in blasting caves and other sanctuaries with whatever sophisticated weaponry was available at that time but without success. And the Soviet Union logistically bordered Afghanistan but its efforts, much greater than ours, was met without success. Mr. Bush, first of all must face reality, secondly recognize and acknowledge the failure of his policies, and accept the fact that without a political solution, the only one viable, the United States will too, as the Soviet Union, be soundly defeated.

Little boys and their toys: The Nazi's exterminated millions during WWII without all of this fancy equipment. What do you think about that?

No matter how sophisticated the bombs we create. They will never outmatch the sophistication, and lethality of a human being strapping on an explosive vest. And walking up to you, and giving you a hug and a big kiss. BOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now match that. You Idiots. :-)

"I am become death. the destroyer of worlds"(Song of the lord)

This UAV will certainly be an asset, but at the high altitude it flys it can "see" a group of people in the mountains, but it won't be able to tell if they are a group of Taliban guys planning a mission or a group of villagers talking about crops. Verification of the target before it fires will be difficult. I don't think it will be used to just willie nillie fly around shooting at things.

Wouldn't it make more sense to employ this technology... to secure the broken border with Mexico? It'd certainly help to mitigate the drug smuggling operations and the ongoing people invasion from that country.

Allowing the insurgents to know about such weapons is a plus for NGOs, ISAF, and US military in rural Afghanistan. It is one more tool we can refer to when dealing with insurgents in the field. Sone of our interactions involve intimidation and posturing, and this new product can actually work to our advantage.

Did we forget 9/11? How are we the bad guys for getting attacked on our own soil?

I think it's OK that they are aware of these weapons. Just like us, they never know for sure that they're not today's target of choice.

To Working in Afghanistan -

Thanks for cluing us in with your informative post and thanks for being willing to work in Afghanistan.

Mikey fresh and JR Smooth... well done.

we could use 10 of these on the canadian border...stop those canadians from taking our tech jobs!

US may deploy the most technologically advanced warfare in that region but US will never get bin laden and jawahiri, unless US get it's own military boots on the ground in Pakistan's tribal region. Bush administration's policy of "outsourcing" the job of hunting down Al-Quaida's and Taliban's leadership and their islamic terrorists to Pakistani military and Pakistani Intelligenced Service, has completely failed. It's time for US to cut off it's 1BL$ of funding to Pakistan until Pakistan delivers bin laden, jawahiri and mullah omar to US. 99.99% of Pakistani military is sympathetic to Al-Quaida's and Taliban's islamic extremist ideology. Entire Pakistani Inter Intelligence Service is protecting Al-Quaida's and Taliban's leadership and they are supporting the islamic extremism in the entire world. It's time for US to act.

Um, let's see. 9/11 happened six years ago. Why in six years haven't we done this? Why all of a sudden are we looking for obl and company? Perhaps if we had started in earnest the week of 9/11 we would have found them by now. I thought security was the number one issue but with two wide open borders and six years of anemic "hunting" for al quaida it is a low priority.

IF CLINTON WAS NOT SCREWING (NOT HIS WIFE) IN THE WHITE HOUSE HE SHOULD OF KILLED BIN LAD WHEN HE HAD THE CHANCE! 9/11 IS ALL %100 HIS FAULT!

So, when we finally blow Osama Bin Laden up, is that when we stop spending colossal amounts on new weapons of destruction and invasions of dusty, civil-war ridden middle eastern countries? Grow up! The bigger of a 'Gollath' we become (and flaunt it in their faces like with this article), the more they'll want to be the 'David' that hits us in a soft spot with a stone from their 'cave'. There is no answer to this conflict here folks, only escalation. Learn from 9/11, put the money into better safety and security technology for our airports and harbors, not in to tech for blowing up a few cave-dwelling militants who are already on the run.

When are they going to wake up to the true he is dead already. Facts.

Osama was a media dog who release month videos after 9/11.

Dec 2001 they bombed his suspected hideouts.

In Dec 2001 was the last video from him.

You connect the dots here and you don't have to be a Rocket Scientist.

Usama bin Ladin has shaved his beard and
scalp and currently plays for the Teh-h-ran Terrible Tigers baketball team as a power forward. He gives post-game interviews occasionally. rl

Maybe they want him to know This Time He's gonna DIEso he can kiss his sorry butt goodbye!!!! Get Him USA!!!!

IF CLINTON WAS NOT SCREWING (NOT HIS WIFE) IN THE WHITE HOUSE HE SHOULD OF KILLED BIN LAD WHEN HE HAD THE CHANCE! 9/11 IS ALL %100 HIS FAULT!

Posted by: truth hurts | Jul 30, 2007 2:48:09 AM

AMEN!!!!

From a different point of view, let's send all the Hell's Angles, Crips, Bloods, and other gangs to Iraq and Afganistan. They already have better fire power than any local police forces and if you saw 60 Minutes they just may be being trained by our loyal military members. We can fix some of our local problems and make our homeland safe from within. We are so afraid if invading forces and we can't even defend ourselves from local gangs that are killing people everyday. Just who is running this country anyway, them or us? Have a great day and hope you are never attacked by some druggie or gang member, or victim of a armed home invasion. Look within to solve the problems out there.

Nothing personal, beenthere, but THAT is just STUPID...

WarPigs- You say the miltary option should be the the last alternative. What about surrender...doesn't "surrender" have a better ring to it, you know, for the last alternative? Or, we could retreat within our borders and par-tay, just like after WWI. Then we'd have nothing to worry about (as back then, ignore any war clouds appearing on the horizon, then they'll go away.) Wait a minute, that can't be right...

Oh what a bunch of crap!
So what ! all these years and millions of dollars spent to find osama, or whatever.
Bush just has to look impressive before he goes, I think he's planning another 911, i think our government has allot more to do with this than people think.
I honestly believe 9-11 was a government conspiracy or however you spell it !