TEL AVIV – Israel's military has succeeded in detecting and neutralizing improvised explosive devices from the air.

Israeli officials said the Israel Defense Forces have combined air and ground forces to detect IEDs during military operations in the Gaza Strip.

They said the military used unmanned air vehicles and helicopters to locate and neutralize bombs during the invasion of the southern Gaza Strip in May.

The method was used during Operation Rainbow, the incursion into Rafah in which the military searched for insurgents and weapons smuggling tunnels.

Palestinian insurgents fought Israeli troops with light arms, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and mines, Middle East Newsline reported.
The Israeli military used a combination of air platforms to locate and destroy the IEDs. Officials said the Searcher unmanned air vehicle detected the bombs placed in alleyways and streets in Rafah. When the IEDs were located, the Israel Air Force summoned an Apache AH-64A attack helicopter to fire a missile to destroy the bombs.

[On late Tuesday, an Israeli Apache AH-64A attack helicopter fired missiles toward what a military spokesman said was a Hamas facility in Gaza City that produced Kassam-class short-range missiles. Israeli military sources said the missile strike was in response to the Hamas firing of Kassam missiles toward Israel.]

The military released a video that showed Palestinian insurgents planting dozens of explosive charges in residential areas of Rafah during the Israeli invasion. The video showed a UAV spotting one IED and directing an attack helicopter to destroy the bomb.

In the video, released on June 6, the Apache was seen firing a single missile, which contained submunitions. The missile destroyed several IEDs.

The video also showed UAVs tracking insurgents with RPGs.

In one part of the video, the UAV detected insurgents who had planted an IED and concealed it with a sheet of plastic. The UAV then helped guide the Apache, which destroyed the bomb.

Officials said that during these operations the UAV and the helicopter were in constant communication. The air platforms were also linked to ground-based systems and tactical computers used by infantry and armored commanders in Rafah.
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Hopefully we can get this implemented in Iraq, sooner than later.

MaumeeRocket Wrote:Hopefully we can get this implemented in Iraq, sooner than later.

BINGO...This would make Iraq so much safer and would hopefully stop the liberals from complaining about all of the causalities, both American and civilian.

Do people simply have zero knowledge of anything military or do conservatives simply learn to accept whatever they're told?

Here we go.

First, in terms of size, the Gaza Strip is small. It's about twice the size of Washington D.C. Baghdad alone is almost the size of Los Angeles. That's just Baghdad proper. Many of the IED's are set along transportation routes outside of Baghdad proper. There aren't enough UAV's in the entire world to cover Baghdad, Fallujah, Kirkuk, Tikrit, etc plus all the supply routes into American military areas. Not a chance.

Second, we don't have nearly the human intelligence network in Iraq that Israel has in Gaza. We've been in Iraq a little over a year. Israel has been in Gaza for decades.

Third, while I'll accept it if a UAV saw someone emplacing and IED, that didn't appear to always be the case. How do they know the Apache missile destroyed anything more than a cardboard box? They don't.

But, back to the original point. There ain't enough UAV's in the world to cover Iraq's major cities and the supply lines leading to those cities.

MAKO Wrote:Do people simply have zero knowledge of anything military or do conservatives simply learn to accept whatever they're told?

Nope, nothing at all. We get our knowledge from democrats....the only ones that serve in the military. :rolleyes:

Quote:Here we go. 

First, in terms of size, the Gaza Strip is small.  It's about twice the size of Washington D.C.  Baghdad alone is almost the size of Los Angeles.  That's just Baghdad proper.  Many of the IED's are set along transportation routes outside of Baghdad proper.  There aren't enough UAV's in the entire world to cover Baghdad, Fallujah, Kirkuk, Tikrit, etc plus all the supply routes into American military areas.  Not a chance.

Second, we don't have nearly the human intelligence network in Iraq that Israel has in Gaza.  We've been in Iraq a little over a year.  Israel has been in Gaza for decades.

Third, while I'll accept it if a UAV saw someone emplacing and IED, that didn't appear to always be the case.  How do they know the Apache missile destroyed anything more than a cardboard box?  They don't. 

But, back to the original point.  There ain't enough UAV's in the world to cover Iraq's major cities and the supply lines leading to those cities.

Welp. there you have it folks. We can't destroy them all so why try to destroy some. :rolleyes:

Is everything a damn negative with you? Those are Democrats over there as well, you know.

Typical Republican Rummy blather. The military professionals said a long time ago that we probably needed 200,000 troops in Iraq. General Shinseki was publicly ridiculed by Paul Wolfowitz who called his figures "wildly off the mark." This administration has demonstrated continuing contempt for the advice given to them by military professionals. While I will readily admit that I'm not a War College graduate nor have I commanded anything like a division, I have been in the military for over 18 years now and I tend to agree with the folks that have been doing it for 30 years and rose to the rank of General rather than agreeing with those folks like Wolfowitz who never spent a day in uniform but think they know better than the professionals.

Let me say this again. You could put up every single UAV in the world, including those that are currently operating in Afghanistan, and you wouldn't come close to covering Iraq. Do you really think we don't have UAV's operating in Iraq right now? If you do, you're even less well educated about the military than your post made it seem.