Who's Drone Is It?
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Saturday September 27, 2008
Word this past week of a Predator UAV crashing in a remote region of Pakistan didn’t really become news until no one at the geometrically-shaped building in Arlington County, Virginia took responsibility for the doomed aircraft’s existence.
As a article on Wired.com points out, Pentagon officials are usually quite forthcoming about the fate of any unmanned aircraft that don’t make it home in one piece. But in the case of this particular UAV that went down in South Waziristan last Tuesday night, that fact that no one is claiming the aircraft as one of their own may, ironically, turn out be more illustrative of the global economy than that of the progress in the war on terror.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., the company that manufactures the spy planes and proudly boasts that they are “Leading the Situational Awareness Revolution”, sells their units to Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Italy, but would not discuss additional “classified sales” to other nations or entities around the world. It goes without saying that “situational awareness” can apparently do a lot for a company’s bottom line.
A spokesperson with GA would not confirm or deny to whom the UAV was sold, but a video tape purported to show the wreckage that began airing last week showed components that were clearly branded with the General Atomics logo. And the plot thickened on Friday when Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responded to a direct question about the aircraft’s country of origin by flatly stating “It wasn’t a U.S. UAV.”
This Leftwing Nutjob loves a mystery.
U.S. Denies Drone Down – Never Mind the Video (Updated)
New Twist in Downed Drone Mystery
Comments
The Political Assistant, Oct 14, 03:41 PM:
Okay, okay, I admit, I was playing with my RC UAV Preadator Drone and accidentally got it shot down over Pakistan. The instructions said it was a “yes fly zone” but of course, they were arabic and I couldn’t understand them.
FYI—I write a blog called THE POLITICAL ASSISTANT
Today’s topic:
Spotlight: The Nineteenth Amendment
Good stuff, keep it comin!
darkstar105, Nov 6, 10:19 PM:
Where have you been? I miss the podcast!
Podcast #117
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday April 15, 2008
Leftwing Nutjob Podcast, Episode 117, for Sunday, April 13, 2008
Penn hits the bricks, Iran in the spotlight again, the Obama money machine, al Qaeda’s rising star and more!