===== server-sky.com/OnKillingRemotely =====
= On Killing Remotely =
== The Psychology of Killing with Drones ==
=== Lt. Col. Wayne Phelps (USMC Retired) ===
==== 358.4 PHE Beaverton Library, 2021 Little, Brown Hachette 349 pg hardback ====

 .pxiii LRE - Launch and Recovery Effort (ie Uzbekistan, Pakistan)
 .pxiv Predator with integrated Hellfire missile, General Atomics San Diego plus CIA
 .pxiv  MCE - Mission Control Element (ie Ramstein Air Base Germany)
 .pxvi  AOC - Air Operations Center
 .pxvi  RPA - Remotely Piloted Aircraft
 .pxvii  2019 Air force study, pstd 6.15% ... surveys 254 US and foreign service members
 .pxviii [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1_Predator | MQ-1 Predator ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper / Predator B | MQ-9 Reaper ]]


||               || Predator MQ-1  || MQ-1B  || MQ-9A Reaper ||
|| Produced      ||<-2> 1995-2018            || 2001-present ||
|| Length        ||<-2> 28.2 m               || 11 m         ||
|| Wingspan      || 14.8 m     || 16.8 m     || 20 m         ||
|| Height        ||<-2> 2.1 m                || 3.81 m       ||
|| Wing area     ||<-2> 11.5 m2              || 2,223 kg     ||
|| Aspect ratio  ||<-2> 19                   || 4,760 kg     ||
|| Empty weight  ||<-2> 513 kg               ||              ||
|| Gross weight  ||<-2> 1,020 kg             ||              ||
|| Fuel capacity ||<-2> 387 kg               || 1,800 kg     ||
|| Payload       ||<-2>              || Internal 360 kg External 1,400 kg ||
|| Maximum speed ||<-2> 217 km/h             || 482 km/h     ||
|| Cruise speed  ||<-2> 130 km/h to 170 km/h || 313 km/h     ||
|| Stall speed   ||<-2> 100 km/h             ||              ||
|| Range         ||<-2> 1250 km              || 1900 km      ||
|| Endurance     ||<-2> 24 hours             || 14 hours     ||
|| Service ceiling ||<-2> 7,600 m            || 15.4 km      ||
|| Operational altitude ||<-2>               ||  7.5 km      ||
|| Hardpoints    ||<-2> 2 for combination of || 7 (2 internal) ||
|| ||<-2> 2 × [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-114_Hellfire | Hellfire (MQ-1B) ]] ||   ||
|| ||<-2> 4 × [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-to-Air_Stinger_(ATAS) | Stinger ]] (ATAS) (MQ-1B) ||   ||
|| ||<-2> 6 × [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-176_Griffin |  Griffin ]]          ||   ||
|| Powerplant ||<-2> Rotax 914F 4-cyl 115 hp (86 kW) || Honeywell TPE331-10 turboprop, 900 hp (671 kW) ||

 .p9  Bessemer: Rifled projectiles, then steel for strong barrels
 .p10 Commandant Claude-Étienne Minié ( [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini%C3%A9_ball |Minié ball ]] )
 .p29 Richard Whittle book ''Predator: The Secret Origins of the RPA Revolution''
 .p30 2011 roadmap, 7672 RPAs, including 6810 small hand-launched RPAs.
 .p31 Bush (2001-2009) 59 RPA strikes, Obama (2009-2017) 563 RPA strikes
 .p31 2016 Hennigen LA Times 78 countries now deploy surveillance drones
 .p32 Peter Singer 2009 book ''Wired for War''
 .p32 Andrew Cockburn 2015 book ''Kill Chain: RPAs and the Rise of High-Tech Assassins''
 .p35 also "unmanned aircraft system" (UAS), "remotely piloted vehicle" (RPV)

|| Group 1 Small UAS                    || <   20 lb || <  1200 ft || < 100 kts ||
|| Group 2 Tactical UAS                 || <   55 lb || <  3500 ft || < 250 kts ||
|| Group 3 Tactical UAS                 || < 1320 lb || < 18000 ft || < 250 kts ||
|| Group 4 Medium Range Long Endurance  || < 1320 lb || < 18000 ft ||           ||
|| Group 5 High Altitude Long Endurance || > 1320 lb ||            ||           ||

 .p38  crowdfunded Ukrainians fought Russian-backed separatists with small commercial drones
 .p41  intimate look:  guy emplaces IEDs, goes home to fight with wife and make more IEDs
 .p48  Reaper pilot watched villagers pick up tiny bits of targeted man.  5 kills in 5 days.
 .p63  Air Force flies 550,000 RPA hours every year
 .p69  4D jobs - dull, dirty, dangerous, and difficult
 .p71  POL Pattern Of Life mission, obvserving ordinary populations for baseline/normal activity
 .p72  CAS Close Air Support, DAS Deep Air Support, TIC Troops In Contact, HVI High Value Individuals
 .p75  HIMARS High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, GPS guided to grid coordinates found by unmanned forward observer
 .p77  Higher aspect ratio wings have greater lift-to-drag, can stay aloft longer
 .p79  98% of missions are ISR intelligence, surveillance, reconnaisance aka I Scan Roads
 .p84  RSO remote split operations:  LRE, MCE mission control element, DCGS distributed ground control element
 .p90  laser not boresighted, missile aimed at 3 targets lands 11 meters ahead, slow agonizing death from fragments
 .p94  "The time between killing and coaching a child's soccer team ... could be less than an hour"
 .p77  Crews rotate between day shift and mid shift frequently, worst thing to do to a warrior
  .p98 performance suffers, families harmed, bad health and life-years lost
 .p102 Desired deploy-to-dwell ratio 1:2 (4mo on 8 mo off) or 1:3 (6mo on 18mo off), actual can be 1.4:1 (7mo on, 5mo off)
 
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This is on the Server Sky website because communicating to and from military drones may be one of the (mis-)applications of Server Sky communication technology.  Very-short-wavelength (near-infrared?), "low-ish efficiency" space solar power could power drones above the clouds for multiday missions without refueling, with tow planes bringing the drones to altitude, and gliding landings augmented by small batteries.