We've Seen the Future, And It's Unmanned

Through these screens, from thousands of miles away, the pilots often operate more like snipers than fighter pilots, observing targets for days, even weeks. They follow the insurgents' lives. They know them. Dan Winters

From Esquire:

Every so often in history, something profound happens that changes warfare forever. Next year, for the first time ever, the Pentagon will buy more unmanned aircraft than manned, line-item proof that we are in a new age of fighting machines, in which war will be ever more abstract, ever more distant, and ruthlessly efficient.

Much of the U.S. Air Force Predator and Reaper fleet for Afghanistan is maintained out of a small cluster of buildings and tents next to the runway at Kandahar Airfield. It is here that I saw the planes up close for the first time. Where fighter jets are at once sleek and muscled, these planes look emaciated. Rap a knuckle on a rib cage and hear the hollow reply. It's hard to see how this is the plane that's revolutionizing warfare. Perched on twiggy landing gear, it looks less like a piece of deadly, cutting-edge military hardware than an oversized version of the windup balsa-wood planes boys build from kits.

Read more ....

My Comment: This is probably the 100th article that I have posted on the development and impact of UAVs on the battlefield. But this one is easy to read, and it gives a small insight into the operations of these weapon/surveillance systems