The MQ9 Reaper, a hunter-killer UAV

MQ-9 Reaper

the reaper is the latest generation of unmanned aerial drones we're using to wreak destruction across vast stretches of afghanistan and pakistan and is undoubtedly one of the reasons pakistan has decided to block the nato supply route over the khyber pass in retaliation for u.s. attacks on pakistani soil...

wikipedia...

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (originally the Predator B) is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for use by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the Royal Air Force, and the Italian Air Force. The MQ-9 and other UAVs are referred to as Remotely Piloted Vehicles/Aircraft (RPV/RPA) by the U.S. Air Force to indicate their human ground controllers.^[3][4] The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance.^[3]

The MQ-9 is a larger and more capable aircraft than the earlier MQ-1 Predator, although it can be controlled by the same ground systems used to control MQ-1s. The Reaper has a 950-shaft-horsepower (712 kW) turboprop engine, far more powerful than the Predator's 115 hp (86 kW) piston engine. The increase in power allows the Reaper to carry 15 times more ordnance and cruise at three times the speed of the MQ-1.^[3] Although the MQ-9 can fly pre-programmed routes autonomously, the aircraft is always monitored or controlled by aircrew in the Ground Control Station (GCS) and weapons employment is always commanded by the pilot.

i just received an email from a friend who camped across from me last summer announcing that he is now fully-qualified on the reaper and will begin operational missions tonight... i enjoyed getting to know him and his family despite the vast chasm between his liberal-hating, hard-ass, neo-con mindset and mine... he provides me with occasional updates and a window into a world that i wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to see...

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Travails on the Khyber Pass supply route between Pakistan and Afghanistan

this is part of the situation i'll be facing when i go back to work in afghanistan this coming week... i land in kabul on saturday...

The Taliban has bombed the main supply route for Nato and US forces in Afghanistan, forcing the US to seek alternative routes. Inside Story looks at the options available to the Obama administration.

from al jazeera...



when i was first there, it struck me just how vulnerable the entire country is on the khyber pass for damn near everthing - food, fuel, supplies of all sorts, and that's not to mention the military supplies... what usually gets neglected in the media reports, including this one from al jazeera, is just how much impact cutting the pakistan supply route has on the afghan people...

(thanks to juan cole...)

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More violence in Peshawar

now that i've got some good friends in this part of the world, i pay much closer attention than usual to news from the area...

one of my good friends is the computer systems administrator for the project where i work... he moved his family from kabul to peshawar, pakistan, some time back for several reasons, not the least of which was their safety and security... he also felt that the schools there were much better for his kids... since then, he's been working tirelessly for weeks at a time (he also handles the regional offices of the project in several other afghan cities), and then takes a week or ten days to drive over the khyber pass to peshawar to spend time with his family...

in recent months, the trip has become increasingly dangerous... bereft of any identification or even a cell phone, he takes a taxi to the border crossing into pakistan and then catches another taxi on the other side for the remainder of the trip... his language, ability to speak the regional dialect, and appearance allow him to blend in and remain inconspicuous, but it's still a frightening, 9 hour ordeal...

he told me a few weeks ago that, come school vacation time, he'll be moving his family back to kabul... with stories like this, i can see why...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A car bomb killed at least 20 people and wounded scores in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, officials said.

The blast occurred near an assembly hall of minority Shi'ite Muslims in a crowded part of the city. One building collapsed in flames and several others were badly damaged and on fire.

"It shook the entire area like an earthquake," said resident Rahim Gul as he tried to remove rubble with his bare hands. "It was a huge and terrible explosion. As we reached here it was all burning. There was rubble all around."

Khizar Hayat, the chief doctor at the city's main government hospital, said at least 20 people had been killed and 50 wounded, 20 of them seriously.

people indiscriminately killing other people... sigh...

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