A Reaper killed two terrorists at a weapons cache in the western desert of Iraq.
On Friday the 23rd of August, an RAF Reaper patrolled over the western deserts of Iraq’s Anbar province, in support of operations by Iraqi security forces to prevent Islamic State regaining a foothold in the area.
The Ministry of Defence say that two armed terrorists had been identified by another coalition surveillance aircraft, and the Reaper found the pair at a hole dug in the desert floor, believed to be a weapons cache.
A single Hellfire missile was fired by the Reaper’s crew, which struck the terrorists and the concealed weapons, say the MoD.
Background on Operation Shader
This section is intended to provide a bit of background on British efforts in the region and if you’ve read it before, please remember others may not have.
By September last year, the Ministry of Defence had announced that over 1,000 personnel were engaged in theatre and that the Royal Air Force had conducted around 1,000 airstrikes, flying over 2,800 sorties, killing over 3,000 Islamic State fighters.
Last year, it was reported that the Royal Air Force was operating at its most intense for 25 years in a single theatre of operation which far outstripped the UK involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan – RAF jets have dropped 11 times more bombs (1,276 strikes) on Syria and Iraq in the preceding 12 months than they had in the busiest year of action in Afghanistan a decade previously.
“A single Hellfire missile was fired by the Reaper’s crew, which struck the terrorists and the concealed weapons, say the MoD.”
With the much higher costs of PGMs such as the Hellfire and Brimstone, I’m suprised the UK (and US) haven’t fitted out their UAVs with the APKWS (or similar) for these clean up ops in Iraq.
farouk, what is APKWS when it is not at home?
Same as CVR-7PG but American.
We are now, all so much the wiser!
The CVR7 is an unguided rocket, the manufacture has added a laser seeker with a steering guidance unit. Therefore it can be used against specific targets. In trials the CVR7-PG has hit moving vehicles. The CVR7 was used on Harriers and is still used on our Apaches.
Thank you, probably saved me an hour or so on the net as I just did for the RR re-engining proposal for the B52 for a simple answer to something. Once you go there you never escape the new questions it inevitably raises.
“The CVR7 was used on Harriers and is still used on our Apaches.”
?
Who used the CVR7 against Harriers and Apaches? The Taliban?
Or did you mean that “the CVR7 was used by Harriers and is still used by our Apaches”?
Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (in other words, another smart bomb. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Precision_Kill_Weapon_System
Thanks
Thank you.
Or rocket
If only the wartime Typhoons had had those.
Wartime Typhoons were still pretty impressive without them! Be interesting to find any stories on what the Nazis felt when they spotted one heading towards them!
There is a good story about some German soldiers telling some tankers to F**k away off, when they were trapped at Falaise gap. Because they knew the tanks would entice Typhoons to their area.
I read that the modern day Luftwaffe resisted adapting the name “Typhoon” for exactly those reasons.