Predators Protect Troops
The loud roars of Air
Force F-16 Fighting Falcons at Logistics Support Area Anaconda, in
Balad, Iraq are familiar reminders of close-air support, but
unmanned Predators silently swarm the skies protecting troops by
different means.
The MQ-1 Predator, a lightweight, low-horsepower, unmanned
aerial vehicle capable of taking daylight and infrared video
imagery traverses the atmosphere above virtually undetectable.
The 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron here aids Army
personnel by keeping eyes on the combat situation via the
Predators.
Although the Predator's main mission is to collect intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance information, it can also be used to
introduce some lethal firepower to an intense combat situation.
"Obviously if we catch the bad guys that are shooting mortars at
our base, the mortars stop," said Air Force Maj. Michael Bruzzini,
squadron commander. "We saw mortars launched and took out the
perpetrators with Hellfire missiles."
All of this is done from a terminal on the ground, where a pilot
and a sensor operator control the movements and actions of the
UAV.
The Predator was used during a recent raid where Army personnel
detained several high-value targets, increasing the unit's combat
effectiveness by 50 percent, Bruzzini said.
"As the raid was going down, a 'God's-eye' view was being passed
down to the soldiers. The Predator had eyes on the whole time and
was able to inform the soldiers of what was going on around them,"
Bruzzini said.
This type of mission is part and parcel what the Predator was
meant for. "Our biggest mission is to support [the Army]. We want
to be your God's-eye view," Bruzzini said.
While the Predator's two onboard Hellfire missiles and
surveillance capabilities supports the mission, Bruzzini still
understands what his sister service's bottom line. "You win wars by
securing ground, and troops on the ground are the only way you
secure ground," the former F-16 pilot said.
He noted that there are challenges that are unique to the
Predator. "You feel like you're in it. You do lose some situational
awareness, because you can't look around your aircraft," Bruzzini
said. "You take for granted a lot of things that are very easy in
other aircraft, like taxiing."
Other than challenges borne of the fact that the pilot isn't
actually in the aircraft, piloting the Predator is very similar to
operating other aircraft.
The sensor operators control the movement of the cameras on the
Predator and undergo nine months of training for that
responsibility. Six months of that training takes place at
Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, and the other three
months take place at a formal training unit.
"In the first couple of weeks of the FTU, you want to quit
[because of difficulties controlling the equipment,]" said Airman
1st Class Tyler Farley, a squadron sensor operator.
Farley has since mastered the operation of the equipment and now
acts on instinct. "You just trust what the pilots do and play your
'video game' for five hours or so," he said.
Although it can be scary controlling a $4.2 million aircraft by
remote control, Bruzzini said they are more apt to take risks in
this aircraft because they're not risking loss of life.
"What's going through my head (when I'm piloting the Predator)
is we have troops getting shot at who are Americans, and I want to
help save American lives. ... It's very rewarding to know that what
you do saves lives. ... There are combat missions with people on
the ground, and I'm saving their lives on a daily basis," Bruzzini
said.
(ANN salutes Army Spc. Leah R. Burton, a member of the 28th
Public Affairs Detachment from Fort Lewis, WA. She is deployed to
Iraq in support of units at LSA Anaconda -- ed.)