Forwarded by Peggy Franklin

                         Global Hawk  
   
 

The Global Hawk UAV that returned  from Iraq on Monday under its own  power. (Iraq to Edwards AFB in CA) -  Not transported via C5 or C17. Notice the mission paintings on the  fuselage. It's actually over 250 missions. That's a long way for a  remotely-piloted aircraft. Think of the technology (and the required  quality of the data link to fly it remotely). Not only that but the pilot  controlled it from a nice warm control panel at Edwards AFB.    It has really long legs - - -it can stay up for almost 2 days at  altitudes above 60k.     

Most people have no idea what  stealth brings to the battle.  Basically, they come into the fight at  a high mach thrust, start killing people way out with AMRAAMS, and  continue doing that until everyone is dead, and no one ever sees them or  paints them on radar.  There is practically no radio chatter because  all the guys in the flight are tied together electronically at Edwards  AFB, and can see who is targeting whom, and they have AWACS direct input  and 360°situational awareness from that and other  sensors.

Remember that when Global Hawk is on a killing  mission in Iraq or  Afghanistan, the "pilot" is  sitting at a console at Edwards AFB in  CA.

 

 

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