![]() ![]() The military had long had an interest in unmanned aircraft, but before the Predator, drones were at best a niche technology. ![]() Controlled by satellite link from 7,000 miles away by an Air Force captain and sergeant at the CIA campus in Northern Virginia, the Predator quickly entered camera range of a compound that was known to house the Taliban’s enigmatic leader and Osama Bin Laden’s key strategic ally, Mullah Mohammed Omar. ![]() intelligence officials had already tracked their target to his home. in Afghanistan, a clear, starry night, and U.S. Eastern Standard Time, the United States’ new secret weapon, the Predator 3034, was already en route to the outskirts of Kandahar. Verville fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, is author of Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution, from which this article is excerpted.īy the time President Bush announced the beginning of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. Richard Whittle, global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Alfred V. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |