Mysterious Fault Downs Reaper Drones
The US Air Force's Reaper drone has been hit by problems
The US Air Force's flagship Reaper drone is
plagued by a mysterious technical fault which causes the craft to fall
out of the sky, a report says.
An investigation by the Washington Post found that the
unmanned drone - which conducts surveillance and airstrikes against
Islamic State - has been hit with a number of technical problems.
It said that electrical faults have caused 20 Reaper drones
to be destroyed or to suffer at least $2m (£1.4m) in damage in the last
year - the worst annual toll ever.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show
that investigations have traced the problem to a faulty
starter-generator, but cannot work out why it keeps failing.
Since 2001, more than 400 large US military drones have crashed.
Video:
How Do Drones Find Their Targets?
The Post said: "Military drones have slammed into homes,
farms, runways, highways, waterways and, in one case, an Air Force C-130
Hercules transport plane in midair.
"No one has died in a drone accident, but the documents show
that many catastrophes have been narrowly averted, often by a few feet,
or a few seconds, or pure luck."
In one incident, documents obtained show that a $3.8m
(£2.6m) Predator drone crashed near Kandahar because the pilot did not
realise she had been flying the aircraft upside down.
Another crashed because the pilot pressed the wrong button on his joystick.
Video:
2015: RAF Reaper Hits IS Vehicle
No-one has died in a drone incident, but errors have resulted in a number of near-misses.
The drones are manufactured in the US but are also used by the Royal Air Force and the Italian Air Force.
RAF Reaper drones are being used for surveillance and airstrikes against IS targets in Syria and Iraq.
Operators control the drones using computers on the ground
No comments:
Post a Comment