Are drone strikes effective?

>>31205611
So much you can enforce gun control with them

>>31205611
They're not bad, but not great either, compared to ordinary ground troops. The main benefit is being low-profile in domestic news, which is mission-critical stuff if you're fighting a war and from a democracy.

Pros:
>Wage war from thousands of miles away
>Zero threat to personnel
>Constant presence
>Fairly cost effective
>Spy while you Hellfire random civilians

Cons:
>Very vulnerable to MANPADS, AA
>Needs ground support, airfield

Yes it's very effective, especially against underdeveloped militaries.

>>31205611

>Sir we have intel that pineapple will be present at an event at 0800 around 8 clicks above baghdad
>How many civilians?
>Multiple estimated casualties sir.
>Fucking pineapple and his goddamn human shields. What do you think we should do?
>Mr. President sir. If we back down every time there's a crowd they'll just walk around with crowds in the open all day
>You're right. you have your green light

*a week later*

>the event was a funeral for a respected granny who never hurt anyone in her life
>50 civilian casualties, women and children 60% of them. the other 20 people skid by statistically because "Militant" is male over 14yrs old.
>Pineapple probably knows which one of his entourage is informing for the CIA
>The informant for the CIA may not be loyal
>Pineapple keeps using him to bomb weddings and funerals to generate goodwill for his cause and recruit survivors

drones in their current state are dubiously effective at counterinsurgency.

once we have drone fighter/bomber planes, that will be a different story. Drone subs are coming, those will be good too. I'm not sold on drone soldiers yet. but if the south koreans are as good at piloting those as they are at CoD, we're fucked.

>>31205611
You'll find out in November famboni. :^)

>>31205952
>Very vulnerable to MANPADS, AA

Are MANPADs and SPAAG really an issue? The Reaper operates at a flight altitude far above the ceiling of most such systems.

>>31206070
All MALE UAVs operate above MANPAD/SPAAG range. And most UAVs below that, like Shadows, are somewhat LO due to low thermal signature and composite construction, even though they aren't truly stealthed.

>>31205611
In the middle east? Yes

For domestic terror on a countries on pop? Yes

For fight an advance country? No

Some poor company of enlisted mechanics still has to deploy to a forward location to service them.

They should use B-52s, B-1s, and the LRSB. They can fly in from half a world away. Loiter all day. Drop 75,000 pounds of ordnance. Then fly home.

>>31206116
On a countries own* pop

>>31206120
Newer extended-range Reapers can be launched up to 1000 miles from the target and still have plenty of fuel to conduct missions.

>>31205611
Yeah they are. Look at how many dead leaders there are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_North-West_Pakistan

Are airstrikes effective?

>>31205611
Dunno, perhaps we should ask the the Pakistani Wedding Planners Union?

Why don't they make NUCLEAR DRONES that can loiter for months with underway replenishing?

>>31206737
Huh. I didn't know that the ER Reaper is publicly known of.

>>31210202
Also, as someone who works on them, you have no idea how effective they really are, OP.

File: MQ-9-Reaper-Extended-Range.jpg (14KB, 640x360px) Image search: [Google]

14KB, 640x360px

>>31210202
Its so well known that its even in the wikipedia article.

>>31208272

Great plan: drone is over insurgency area, has technical defect, crashes right into the hands of jihadis - yeah, free material for a dirty bomb.

In assassinating high members of terrorist groups ?
Sure.
In making the middle east more stable ?
That's more arguable.