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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Reaper goes out of control, shot down by fighter jet
2009-09-17
The U.S. Air Force reported that it had lost a MQ-9 Reaper UAV over western Afghanistan on September 13th. What it didn't report, at the time, was that the Reaper was shot down by a U.S. fighter. That was because something went wrong with the Reapers commo link, and the operator lost control of the aircraft. As air force techs scrambled to regain control, the Reaper continued to fly north, and this would eventually take the UAV outside of Afghanistan. The air force would not elaborate, but this could mean the aircraft would fly into Tajikistan, or China. It was thought prudent to ensure that the Reaper did not leave Afghanistan.
Don't go all Skynet on us.
So a U.S. fighter was directed to catch up with it. A 4.6 ton Reaper cruises at about 300 kilometers an hour. Most jet fighters can easily do five or six times that, long enough to catch up. The air force did not say how the Predator was brought down (by cannon or missile, or by being tipped over by the backwash of a jet fighter passing very close). All the air force would say was that the Reaper crashed into an Afghan mountainside, far from any populated area, at about 5:30 AM, local time. The Reaper got reaped.
You'd think it would be programmed to just go to its home location and land if it lost contact. Then again, this is a government job, so I'm not surprised.
Posted by:gromky

#19  First "I, ROBOT" now comes "I, REAPER"???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-09-17 23:25  

#18  'in fhte' is really Grummie-speak for 'if the'
but youse guys already knew that, right?
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2009-09-17 23:11  

#17  "You'd think it would be programmed to just go to its home location and land if it lost contact. Then again, this is a government job, so I'm not surprised."
Back in the day, the Flying Dorito had a system that allowed the GIB to punch a button in fhte GIF was incapacitated and the bird would fly to a set of coordinates where the GIB would initiate an eject sequence for both men (this was before the USN gave wimmins the right to fly in combat). Lost the bird, but got the crew.
and this was 1980's tech.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2009-09-17 23:08  

#16  actually, it is finally reported by a NYT intern 10 days after the bots have killed the rest of us. But with an "Obama-Approved Program exceeds military expectations" spin
Posted by: Frank G   2009-09-17 22:04  

#15  ;-)
Posted by: lotp   2009-09-17 21:46  

#14  Uh, actually two years from now. After being a strong advocate of autonomous killbots, I have a change of heart in 2011 and pen an impassioned rant here on the 'burg warning of the coming robo-apocalypse.
Posted by: SteveS   2009-09-17 20:59  

#13  When?
Posted by: lotp   2009-09-17 18:04  

#12  And so it begins.

When unstoppable killer cyborgs from the future start showing up, don't say I didn't warn you.
Posted by: SteveS   2009-09-17 17:02  

#11  I'm waiting 'till we get the 15-G capable wingman. take an f-22 on steroids, take out the pilot, and let the good times roll.
Posted by: notascrename   2009-09-17 16:53  

#10  Wow, maybe we can get some writer to jazz this up where they could make a movie about this, but with more explosions and perky women.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2009-09-17 15:56  

#9  it was a grim day for that reaper
Posted by: 746   2009-09-17 13:29  

#8  Sounds to me like a GPS failure on the Reaper.
Posted by: 3dc   2009-09-17 11:43  

#7  Either way, I'm glad we killed it instead of it flying away.

Hopefully the contractor figures out what went wrong.
Posted by: DarthVader   2009-09-17 11:29  

#6  Ed, I don't know. They are fly by wire, tho.

Jame, agreed.
Posted by: lotp   2009-09-17 11:15  

#5  Can it be that some country to the north has already learned how to "hack" the Reaper? That possibility is always what worries me about UAV's.

You don't need to hack it, you just need to jam the incoming signal. This event says that something larger than loss-of-signal was going on, though. Until we see this again, though, I would say malfunction.
Posted by: Jame Retief   2009-09-17 09:49  

#4  Can it be that some country to the north has already learned how to "hack" the Reaper? That possibility is always what worries me about UAV's.
Posted by: D McConnell   2009-09-17 09:00  

#3  The air force would not elaborate, but this could mean the aircraft would fly into Tajikistan, or China.

Unless it's bomb load had already been dropped, the downside please.
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-09-17 08:50  

#2  LOTP, do you know if the Predator/Reaper have triple/quad redundancy in it's flight controls or was that deleted to save weight?
Posted by: ed   2009-09-17 08:43  

#1  It *is* programmed to return to its home location if comms are lost. That failed in some way.

It would not be prudent for it to cross international borders and give the Chinese an opportunity to make high profile demands re: a violation of their airspace. Nor would it be prudent to allow the Chinese to get hold of it and reverse engineer key elements.

There's a little more info here
Posted by: lotp   2009-09-17 08:06  

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