RQ-170Bin Laden Mission Signals The End For The Predator Drone -- Small Wars Journal
Today’s Washington Post discussed how the CIA used a stealthy drone – the RQ-170 Sentinel – to collect overhead imagery and signals intelligence on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The RQ-170 was dubbed “the Beast of Kandahar” after it was spotted at the nearby military airbase as early as 2007, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology. Intelligence preparation for the bin Laden raid demonstrated the requirement for a persistent overhead reconnaissance platform that also had to be stealthy. This requirement for the bin Laden mission foreshadows a rapid change in required drone capabilities, which implies a need to change the government’s current drone investment plans. After just coming into their own, the Pentagon and CIA should consider ending purchases of the non-stealthy Predator, Reaper, and Global Hawk drones and redirecting those funds to their stealthy drone successors.and Global Hawk drones and redirecting those funds to their stealthy drone successors.
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Military Sticker Shock (The F-35) -- AJC
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SEAL Team Six: Pentagon ramps up war of words over White House leaks -- Christian Science Monitor
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