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'Disposa-Planes' Groomed for War
Tuesday, September 25, 2001 (2:00 AM PT)
By Noah Shachtman / Company

Unmanned, almost disposable spy planes are being groomed for a major role in the coming conflict against terrorism, defense analysts say. But while these Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ("UAVs" in defense lingo) offer striking capabilities to peer into terrorists' camps, the drones are slow, noisy, and dumb - making them easy targets for enemy fire.

One such plane has already been lost over Afghanistan; two more have gone down over Iraq in just the past month.

Despite these incidents, UAVs like the Predator -­ a windowless, bulbous-nosed, V-tailed, 27-foot-long craft ­- are shaping up to be "the instrument of choice we'll want to rely on" to snoop on terrorists and their bases, according to Nick Cook, an aerospace consultant for Jane's Defense Weekly.

"The consensus view is that it's hard to view any type of military operation where we wouldn't use this technology," William Martel, professor of national security at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, said.
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Dan