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Hunting down the Taliban in Nevada
Every morning in Las Vegas, Steve Smith kisses his wife and young daughters goodbye, gets in his car, drives 50 minutes down the freeway, past shopping malls and casinos, and goes to war in Afghanistan.
After his eight-hour shift, during which he may have launched missiles against Taliban insurgents in Helmand province or carried out reconnaissance for British troops, Smith gets back in his car, turns the radio to the station Mix 941 so he can relax and drives back to the comfort and safety of his family.
Squadron Leader Steve Smith is one of a new generation of British warriors who commute to combat. They are engaging the enemy not from Kabul nor from Kandahar, but via joysticks and computer screens more than 8,000 miles away, at Creech air force base, deep in the Nevada desert. Smiths job is to pilot what British and American commanders are calling the most effective weapon against Al-Qaeda the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned drone.
The growing strategic importance of drones was highlighted last week when the CIA recommended that the military increase its use of them in Pakistan to combat the mounting insurgency threat. With a 66ft wingspan, the remote-controlled Reaper can stay airborne for 22 hours unseen and unheard at an altitude of 21,000ft the only thing limiting its air time is fuel.
For the most part, the hunter-killer Reaper is used to survey an area, relaying video images back to mission command to help ground troops understand their surroundings. As its name suggests, though, this drone can also engage the enemy. The Reaper can carry an awesome payload: up to four Hellfire missiles and two 500lb Paveway II bombs, all laser-guided. When the order comes from a troop commander on the ground Cleared hot the pilots in Nevada pull the trigger.
Smith is a boyish, red-haired 40-year-old from Cumbria and a key member of 39 Squadron, the first RAF unit to fly UAVs unmanned aerial vehicles. The squadron, which now has about 90 people in Nevada, flew its first Reaper mission over Afghanistan in October 2007, and has since flown almost 400 missions during its 3,800 operational hours. The squadron now flies Reapers 365 days a year, for 10-12 hours a day, weather in Afghanistan permitting. Used extensively by the Americans, the Reapers cost about $15m (£10m) each. The RAF has two of them in operation but hopes to have six by the end of the year, allowing it to fly drones 24 hours a day.
The Reaper, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the American defence contractor, is an improvement on its predecessor a large UAV called the Predator. It can carry a bigger payload of weapons and equipment, and has proved more reliable (that is, less likely to crash) in operations. Last week The Sunday Times was given a rare tour of the facility at Creech and watched as a 39 Squadron pilot flew a Reaper combat mission over Helmand province, in southwest Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents have been gaining strength in recent months.
Each Reaper is operated from a small, dark, air-conditioned cockpit in a ground control station GCS by a two-man crew comprising a pilot and a sensor operator. In front of them they each have computer keyboards and a bank of screens that gives them an immense array of geographical, logistical and tactical information.
Real-time images including infrared night-time shots beamed back from cameras on the prow of the planes can show them details as small but significant as whether individual human figures are carrying weapons. The pilots and sensor operators also both have joysticks and throttles and triggers similar to those used in normal aircraft and in some video games. Because the concentration and focus needed is so intense, Reaper crews work in short shifts of between three and four hours.
The computer screens have five open chat rooms that the crews use to communicate with troops on the ground, commanders in remote locations and other coalition forces. They also communicate via radio and even use secure internet voice communications.
It allows us to talk to the customer, who gets our video feed, Smith explains. The customer is usually a JTAC joint tactical air controller a trained combat officer on the ground in Afghanistan, who is watching the video images being beamed from the Reaper on a small field computer terminal in a kit called a Rover remotely operated video-enhanced receiver that he carries in a rucksack. It is the JTAC on the ground who usually requests the Reaper reconnaissance and will call it in to strike a target if needed.
Sitting behind the pilot and the sensor operator, looking at the same pictures, are two image analysts. They have usually had experience on the ground in Afghanistan and can help pilots and others looking at the video feedback evaluate what they are seeing, in particular to avoid endangering friendlies Afghan civilians and coalition troops.
They help us understand whether the people we are seeing on the ground are farmers digging an irrigation ditch or insurgents planting bombs beside the road, explains Flight Lieutenant Colin Jones, a 33-year-old sensor operator from Stoke-on-Trent, who lives in Las Vegas with his wife and two-year-old daughter.
Wing Commander Andy Jeffrey, the leader of 39 Squadron, refuses to say what missions these weapons have been used on and whether they have taken out so-called high-value Taliban targets. He was much keener to stress how the Reapers are defending British and other coalition troops in Afghanistan.
What makes the Reaper an effective, even war-changing weapon is its ability to stay in the air for so long, circling silent, invisible above a single area such as a village, mountain pass or city suburb while beaming back real-time video images.
Often this means the crews are looking at the simple pattern of life on the ground, observing the way ordinary Afghans live so they can spot unusual or suspicious activity. This, combined with their fearsome attack capability, means the Reapers have done more than any other weapons system to track down insurgents and save British and American lives, says one top commander.
The members of 39 Squadron, living far from both the theatre of operations in the Middle East and their homes in the UK, acknowledge that they encounter very different pressures from those faced by troops on the ground or flying real combat missions. They also know that some servicemen envy them their distance from the savagery of war.
Certainly, while they are at the Creech air force base, the crews can hang out, play darts, read the British papers and watch Champions League football. And unlike combat troops, at the end of their shifts they get to go home to their wives and children.
Its hard not to feel detached sometimes, Smith admits. Out here weve got our families; we can stop at Starbucks on the way to work but at the same time were fighting a very real war. It takes a lot to get your head around that.
After a shift during which he may have fired a Hellfire missile or dropped a 500lb bomb on an Afghan truck, Smith passes a sign as he leaves the base warning him to drive carefully: this, it says, is the most dangerous part of your day.
Some names have been changed
The shape of things to come
The Reaper drone may be the RAFs most advanced unmanned aircraft, but the Ministry of Defence is already looking at new technology that goes one step further. For the past four years, BAE Systems has been developing a generation of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) that could take over completely from fighter pilots.
The programme, backed by the MoD, is developing flying machines that are fully autonomous: able to take off and land automatically and, once airborne, survey an area and fly according to changing conditions, with no human input.
The most advanced of these craft is the Taranis, pictured, a £124m autonomous stealth fighter.
BAE says a ground test of the aircraft will take place later this year, and flight trials of a demonstrator vehicle are scheduled to take place in South Australia in 2010. The Taranis, with its distinctive triangular delta-wing shape, will not only be able to carry out long-range reconnaissance missions but will also engage enemy fighter planes.
The technology could have far-reaching consequences in the civilian world. BAE says that, provided aviation legislation can be amended, civilian cargo flights using autonomous aircraft could be a reality by 2015.
Every morning in Las Vegas, Steve Smith kisses his wife and young daughters goodbye, gets in his car, drives 50 minutes down the freeway, past shopping malls and casinos, and goes to war in Afghanistan.
After his eight-hour shift, during which he may have launched missiles against Taliban insurgents in Helmand province or carried out reconnaissance for British troops, Smith gets back in his car, turns the radio to the station Mix 941 so he can relax and drives back to the comfort and safety of his family.
Squadron Leader Steve Smith is one of a new generation of British warriors who commute to combat. They are engaging the enemy not from Kabul nor from Kandahar, but via joysticks and computer screens more than 8,000 miles away, at Creech air force base, deep in the Nevada desert. Smiths job is to pilot what British and American commanders are calling the most effective weapon against Al-Qaeda the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned drone.
The growing strategic importance of drones was highlighted last week when the CIA recommended that the military increase its use of them in Pakistan to combat the mounting insurgency threat. With a 66ft wingspan, the remote-controlled Reaper can stay airborne for 22 hours unseen and unheard at an altitude of 21,000ft the only thing limiting its air time is fuel.
For the most part, the hunter-killer Reaper is used to survey an area, relaying video images back to mission command to help ground troops understand their surroundings. As its name suggests, though, this drone can also engage the enemy. The Reaper can carry an awesome payload: up to four Hellfire missiles and two 500lb Paveway II bombs, all laser-guided. When the order comes from a troop commander on the ground Cleared hot the pilots in Nevada pull the trigger.
Smith is a boyish, red-haired 40-year-old from Cumbria and a key member of 39 Squadron, the first RAF unit to fly UAVs unmanned aerial vehicles. The squadron, which now has about 90 people in Nevada, flew its first Reaper mission over Afghanistan in October 2007, and has since flown almost 400 missions during its 3,800 operational hours. The squadron now flies Reapers 365 days a year, for 10-12 hours a day, weather in Afghanistan permitting. Used extensively by the Americans, the Reapers cost about $15m (£10m) each. The RAF has two of them in operation but hopes to have six by the end of the year, allowing it to fly drones 24 hours a day.
The Reaper, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the American defence contractor, is an improvement on its predecessor a large UAV called the Predator. It can carry a bigger payload of weapons and equipment, and has proved more reliable (that is, less likely to crash) in operations. Last week The Sunday Times was given a rare tour of the facility at Creech and watched as a 39 Squadron pilot flew a Reaper combat mission over Helmand province, in southwest Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents have been gaining strength in recent months.
Each Reaper is operated from a small, dark, air-conditioned cockpit in a ground control station GCS by a two-man crew comprising a pilot and a sensor operator. In front of them they each have computer keyboards and a bank of screens that gives them an immense array of geographical, logistical and tactical information.
Real-time images including infrared night-time shots beamed back from cameras on the prow of the planes can show them details as small but significant as whether individual human figures are carrying weapons. The pilots and sensor operators also both have joysticks and throttles and triggers similar to those used in normal aircraft and in some video games. Because the concentration and focus needed is so intense, Reaper crews work in short shifts of between three and four hours.
The computer screens have five open chat rooms that the crews use to communicate with troops on the ground, commanders in remote locations and other coalition forces. They also communicate via radio and even use secure internet voice communications.
It allows us to talk to the customer, who gets our video feed, Smith explains. The customer is usually a JTAC joint tactical air controller a trained combat officer on the ground in Afghanistan, who is watching the video images being beamed from the Reaper on a small field computer terminal in a kit called a Rover remotely operated video-enhanced receiver that he carries in a rucksack. It is the JTAC on the ground who usually requests the Reaper reconnaissance and will call it in to strike a target if needed.
Sitting behind the pilot and the sensor operator, looking at the same pictures, are two image analysts. They have usually had experience on the ground in Afghanistan and can help pilots and others looking at the video feedback evaluate what they are seeing, in particular to avoid endangering friendlies Afghan civilians and coalition troops.
They help us understand whether the people we are seeing on the ground are farmers digging an irrigation ditch or insurgents planting bombs beside the road, explains Flight Lieutenant Colin Jones, a 33-year-old sensor operator from Stoke-on-Trent, who lives in Las Vegas with his wife and two-year-old daughter.
Wing Commander Andy Jeffrey, the leader of 39 Squadron, refuses to say what missions these weapons have been used on and whether they have taken out so-called high-value Taliban targets. He was much keener to stress how the Reapers are defending British and other coalition troops in Afghanistan.
What makes the Reaper an effective, even war-changing weapon is its ability to stay in the air for so long, circling silent, invisible above a single area such as a village, mountain pass or city suburb while beaming back real-time video images.
Often this means the crews are looking at the simple pattern of life on the ground, observing the way ordinary Afghans live so they can spot unusual or suspicious activity. This, combined with their fearsome attack capability, means the Reapers have done more than any other weapons system to track down insurgents and save British and American lives, says one top commander.
The members of 39 Squadron, living far from both the theatre of operations in the Middle East and their homes in the UK, acknowledge that they encounter very different pressures from those faced by troops on the ground or flying real combat missions. They also know that some servicemen envy them their distance from the savagery of war.
Certainly, while they are at the Creech air force base, the crews can hang out, play darts, read the British papers and watch Champions League football. And unlike combat troops, at the end of their shifts they get to go home to their wives and children.
Its hard not to feel detached sometimes, Smith admits. Out here weve got our families; we can stop at Starbucks on the way to work but at the same time were fighting a very real war. It takes a lot to get your head around that.
After a shift during which he may have fired a Hellfire missile or dropped a 500lb bomb on an Afghan truck, Smith passes a sign as he leaves the base warning him to drive carefully: this, it says, is the most dangerous part of your day.
Some names have been changed
The shape of things to come
The Reaper drone may be the RAFs most advanced unmanned aircraft, but the Ministry of Defence is already looking at new technology that goes one step further. For the past four years, BAE Systems has been developing a generation of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) that could take over completely from fighter pilots.
The programme, backed by the MoD, is developing flying machines that are fully autonomous: able to take off and land automatically and, once airborne, survey an area and fly according to changing conditions, with no human input.
The most advanced of these craft is the Taranis, pictured, a £124m autonomous stealth fighter.
BAE says a ground test of the aircraft will take place later this year, and flight trials of a demonstrator vehicle are scheduled to take place in South Australia in 2010. The Taranis, with its distinctive triangular delta-wing shape, will not only be able to carry out long-range reconnaissance missions but will also engage enemy fighter planes.
The technology could have far-reaching consequences in the civilian world. BAE says that, provided aviation legislation can be amended, civilian cargo flights using autonomous aircraft could be a reality by 2015.
