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Article: UAS: unseen, unheard, unstoppable.(unmanned aircraft systems)(Cover story)
- Article from:
- Airman
- Article date:
- September 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 U.S. Air Force, Air Force News Agency. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When the Air Force grounded all of its 700 F-15 aircraft in November 2007, following a mishap, the jet's firepower was noticeably absent in the war on terrorism for 18 days.
Sometimes the only Air Force bomb-carrying aircraft in Afghanistan during that time didn't even have pilots in the cockpit. Carrying the load was the service's deadly MQ-9 Reaper UAS, or unmanned aircraft system.
Able to carry as much as an F-16 Fighting Falcon, the Reaper becomes more popular each day in war zones because of the bombs-on-target capability it provides. And its footprint is small: Reaper crews fly the unmanned aircraft from half a ...