quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
The fact that this guy was pink misted in Kabul tells me that local police and intel services knew he was there. My guess is the intel was traded or sold to US intel services.

Local cops are just glad to have a payroll they control and a fiefdom they can use against others. Pakistan's ISI is sympathetic to AQ, they may have tired of him; same can also be said of the Haqqani's. Now that they have a country that they largely control, (they issue passports ) somebody from within may have wanted him gone. Then again, trying not to over-think this, Kabul is a big city, over 4-million people roaming around, plenty of places to hide and grey-areas to blend-in with.

Pretty sure I heard that he was staying in a high ranking Taliban government official’s apartment.

So they slap chopped him. You'll love my nuts.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy:
I’ve used a bunch of R9X.

When was your experience? Have things improved?
Would the CIA have used the missile against such a high profile target if there were concerns about its effectiveness?

(Not disputing your comment, just very interested.)

Recent.

You can shoot several for simo-TOT to mitigate reliability concerns, using the same or different PRF (pulse repition frequency, it’s the laser code the seeker guides to). Also, you never hear about incidence of these things hitting off target… why would you? Suffice to say there are plenty of targets who see their potential death land 10’ away then think about it for the next 6 months before one chops them in half.

I’m generally not a fan of them, but they have an appropriate time and place. And who knows what specialized capabilities non-DOD customers might add, not me. Clearly this was successful, which is fantastic.

The FBI did have a $25,000,000 reward for information leading to this guy. That’s motivation.

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy:
I’ve used a bunch of R9X. They’re impressive when they work, which isn’t common. They’re the toughest weapon to laze in.

When you say “laze in”, are you saying these are laser guided? I’m having trouble comprehending a self-guided missile locking in on a person from 9.5 miles away, assuming the 50,000 feet being reported is true. It’ll take the missile 35 seconds to travel that distance. If he does his prayers at the same time and in same spot everyday, I have no doubt we have the capability to put a missile on that spot at that time. I have a hard time believing we can hit him if he gets up and walks 20 feet away without giving the missile some help. Having people near him bouncing lasers off his turban I can comprehend.

quote:

Originally posted by BOATTRASH1:
I'd really like to believe that that scumbag glanced up and had a couple seconds to see that flying ginzu knife coming at him.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
The FBI did have a $25,000,000 reward for information leading to this guy. That’s motivation.

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy:
I’ve used a bunch of R9X. They’re impressive when they work, which isn’t common. They’re the toughest weapon to laze in.

When you say “laze in”, are you saying these are laser guided? I’m having trouble comprehending a self-guided missile locking in on a person from 9.5 miles away, assuming the 50,000 feet being reported is true. It’ll take the missile 35 seconds to travel that distance. If he does his prayers at the same time and in same spot everyday, I have no doubt we have the capability to put a missile on that spot at that time. I have a hard time believing we can hit him if he gets up and walks 20 feet away without giving the missile some help. Having people near him bouncing lasers off his turban I can comprehend.

AGM-114 is a laser guided weapon. Somebody, usually in the same or a different aircraft (ground users are extremely rare), is flying that missile onto target using a weapons grade laser… and they are not at 50,000 feet. There’s a lot more that goes into this than you might think: weapon time of flight, target movement, atmospheric attenuation, aircraft speed if dissimilar, clouds, seeker head angle vs angle of lasing platform, laser spillover and surface albedo, podium affect, handover boundary, time to boom (meaning when the target might hear the sonic boom), aircraft acoustic signature impacted by topography, etc. And each weapon is different and flies different and has different characteristics. It’s super fun and super complicated. Try flying an airplane at the same time, lol. I’m retiring in a few months, I’m going to miss it.

Thanks for all that explanation.
And thanks to you and all the rest who do what you do for us all.