First plane shot down.

[CocaCola5]

What looks to be a US unmanned spy plane"Drone" has been shot down in Northern Alghanistan by the Taliban. --AP

 

[Frglss]

here too.

 

[sciencewhiz]

cnn

 

[kcklla]

whats your point. Where you expecting nothing to happen. This isnt going to be a desert storm

 

[Viper GTS]

Who cares. These things are slow & cheap, they're sitting ducks.

I spent more on my can of Lipton Iced Tea this morning than I did to buy that drone.

Viper GTS

 

[Killbat]

That's why we have them. They get shot down, trained pilots don't.

 

[CocaCola5]

<< whats your point. Where you expecting nothing to happen. This isnt going to be a desert storm >>






The first plane down is always news, especially when its a spy plane.

 

[kcklla]

Well I guess it could be news but Im guessing there will be a lot of spy plans shot down in the next few weeks.

 

[Viper GTS]

The first plane down is always news, especially when its a spy plane.

These "spy" planes are ultra cheap, disposable, unmanned drones. Iraq shot one down a while ago.

IIRC these cost around $3,000,000, in other words they're pocket change.

Viper GTS

 

[kcklla]

I wish that was pocket change for me

 

[GoldenBear]

$3m that easily could've gone to a better cause.

 

[glenn1]

<< Well I guess it could be news but Im guessing there will be a lot of spy plans shot down in the next few weeks. >>



So much the better. Each time the Taliban shoots down a recon drone, we gain more invaluable intelligence on the placement and makeup of their air defense assets. Each air defense asset which "lit up" a drone on radar, or fired at it, will be instantly noted by our reconaissance satellites and put on the database for first strike targeting.

 

[CocaCola5]

They are cheap and the US can probably make a million of them BUT, the crew and technician to operate them are few in numbers, meaning only a small number are in the air simultaneously so they are important.

 

[Lucky]

these cost around $3,000,000


I've read its much less than that, about 350K. They have a very small motor, can only fly about 100 MPH. The cost comes in the sophisticated cameras inside them. They arent 3 mil though.

And now US is denying anything was shot down that was US. Northern opposition, perhaps, but not US, they say.

 

[althor27]

I like the Nair bomb idea, or maybe some camel stimulant.

 

[Shiggs]

I thought you meant a pilot got shot down...but its only a spy plane...true it cost some $$$, but at least its not an American soldiers life.

 

[jehh]

The $3 million figure it bogus... It is refering to the DarkStars, and those as I recall cost $2.8 million each as they can fly at 450 knots at 75,000 feet and have stealth technology.

The low drones they use that can be shot down by machine guns do cost about $350,000 or so each, for our military that is very cheap, almost throwaway...

Jason

 

[FrysInsider]

the way some of you guys are so defensive it sounds like you got your feelings hurt or something lol

 

[Viper GTS]

Read Here

Estimated $3.2 million apiece.

Also, here

Diamond, John. "Cost of Building Unmanned Spy Planes Rises Sharply, Audit Finds." Philadelphia Inquirer, 16 Dec. 1998. [http://www.phillynews.com]

A General Accounting Office report says that "[t]he cost of building unmanned spy planes for the U.S. military is shooting up by nearly 50 percent, but the Pentagon has no plans to scrap the program.... Global Hawk, a non-stealthy aircraft being designed by Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical, will cost an estimated $13.7 million, the GAO said. The radar-evading DarkStar aircraft designed by Lockheed Martin will cost $14.8 million, according to the latest estimate."

And here:

"Hitting one of those drones is not a lot to boast about. If it was shot down, the Iraqis probably did it with anti-aircraft guns and not a missile," said one official, who asked not to be identified and confirmed that the US$3.2 million RQ-1B Predator had gone down in southern Iraq.

Viper GTS

 

[ElFenix]

everyone else is reporting they shot down an northern alliance helicopter.

 

[Wallydraigle]

The last I heard they didn't know what they had shot down. I think more than anything they just wanted it to be one of ours, so that's the story the want to get out. As far as I know the Pentagon hasn't commented yet.