Shortly after posting this stor, both Haliburton and The Pentagon came snooping around here. I don’t know for sure this is the post that brought big brother around but I noticed their IPs.

Maybe they did loose another UAV or maybe they have alerts for the topic set up. Interesting to say the least.

On one of the science channels or maybe even the Pentagon Channel the other day, they were stating we had Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVS?) that could be launched, from the US, guided by satellite and even refueled from the US. Or maybe I just thought they said US. if we don’t admit to having them, I’ve very surprised if we don’t have some that can do that.

I was pretty amazed that when we use B1′s, I think B1′s… Our stealthy bombers. That we often launch them from the US and have them return to the US.

Again, thanks for the info!

UAVs CAN be used to launch pin point attacks but the ones in country thus far are merely for surveillance. Surevillance UAVs are rather small and I would tend to agree with the first poster who said that the crashed UAV had mechanical failure. Small arms fire is not effective with them, the only risk being RPG and thank G-D here to fore that RPGs are not in any local armouries.

As for the MILF and the Cease Fire, that has been over for quite sometime. Last year it fell aprt when they massacarred a marine patrol (July 2007 if I recall the month). The poster is correct though that it seems strange that the MILF should be voicing concerns about supposed Constitutional Violations given the Bangsamoro stance on Philippine Sovereignity.

Also last year, a huge problem arose when 3 US personell were observed by loca media in GenSan openly carrying sidearms. Having to be careful about my phrasing, ALLEGEDLY there are joint US/Philippine Ops on Jolo and parts of Sulu, and fringe involvement on Basilan so that displaying a firearm while offduty would seem a very minor issue given unifromed patrols ALLEGEDLY engaging guerillas. There have been claims of the same thing here on Mindanao but to my knowledge they are false. There ARE ambiguities though on Mindanao, like the previously mentioned UAVs but I better stop while I am ahead.

I suspect that’s when the MILF became aware of the use of these devices. It would be prestigious for them if they could shoot down a drone. I don’t believe they have it at all. I would be highly concerned if I was being spied on from above. I feel it is likely that moral is at a bit of a low in the MILF’s ranks about now.

I don’t think it would be of great value to anyone if they did. I doubt it has anything in it other countries can use to develop their own systems. Most of the system is some where in the USA, probably buried under a mountain. It probably has nice electronics in it but that could be obtained off the net. Its the mainframes back in the US that control them. Otherwise, the US would just blow them up remotely if they were concerned about them falling into enemy hands.

Shooting one down could be a real moral booster, thus the claim is being made, I suspect for that reason.