What a Busted Robot Airplane Tells Us About the American Empire in 2012 and Beyond

[marmar]

from TomDispatch:



The Drone That Fell From the Sky
What a Busted Robot Airplane Tells Us About the American Empire in 2012 and Beyond

By Nick Turse


The drone had been in the air for close to five hours before its mission crew realized that something was wrong. The oil temperature in the plane’s turbocharger, they noticed, had risen into the “cautionary” range. An hour later, it was worse, and it just kept rising as the minutes wore on. While the crew desperately ran through its “engine overheat” checklist trying to figure out the problem, the engine oil temperature, too, began skyrocketing.

By now, they had a full-blown in-flight emergency on their hands. “We still have control of the engine, but engine failure is imminent,” the pilot announced over the radio.

Almost two hours after the first signs of distress, the engine indeed failed. Traveling at 712 feet per minute, the drone clipped a fence before crashing.

Land of the Lost Drones

The skies seem full of falling drones these days. The most publicized of them made headlines when Iran announced that its military had taken possession of an advanced American remotely piloted spy aircraft, thought to be an RQ-170 Sentinel. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175482/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_life_and_death_of_american_drones/#more (follows a brief intro)

[rfranklin]

1. well, at least there weren't 24 Americans on board...

A US EP-3 Aries II spy plane collides with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea. The fighter crashes, killing the pilot; the EP-3 makes an emergency landing at a Chinese air base on China’s Hainan Island, a landing described as illegal by Chinese officials. 24 American crewmen—including three women and eight code-breakers—are taken into custody by the Chinese. The incident is the Bush administration’s first real foreign-policy crisis. [CNN, 4/2001; BBC, 4/5/2001]

[prepperdad]

2. Drones and war

We are fighting wars without end. So much fighting that we've massed produced these drones to do the fighting for us. No nation can survive if it wages constant warfare.


[url]http://www.survivingeconomiccollapse.net[/url]

[Dan]

3. I wouldn't say that is a true statement.

I would have to qualify the statement by saying ...No nation can survive if it wages constant warfare - without significant return on investment.

My thought.

[Angry Dragon]

4. I believe the days of war pillage are over

if not then you are going to war to rape other countries.........

[Dan]

5. of course, that's the true return on the war investment.

[sarcasmo]

6. Always money for the Empire

Never money available for Social Programs.