Our beloved government leaders are so proud of their glorious victories on the battlefield in Iraq. The Iraqi army runs away and allows the U.S. created ISIS army to walk into Ramadi. But our glorious leaders feel the need to put out propaganda films of their Airforce destroying a fucking 10 year old pickup truck with a Brimstone missile.
A quick investigation reveals that one Brimstone missile costs $250,000. You can surely add another $25,000 for the cost of having the Tornado GR4s patrol the skies over Iraq. We are spending $275,000 to blow up one pickup truck that we can’t even prove is an enemy pickup truck, because we have no fucking idea who the enemy is.
But it doesn’t matter. MBDA (UK) Ltd, Lostock, the arms dealer who made that missile, will just produce another one driving up their profits and pumping up the UK economy. It’s all good. They’ll make a contribution to Cameron’s party and put him on their Board of Directors when he is done as Prime Minister. It’s the military industrial complex circle of life.
The UK Ministry of Defense released footage of airstrikes carried out on May 27, purportedly against positions of the self-proclaimed Islamic State in northern Iraq. The recording shows Tornado GR4s from RAF Akrotiri targeting an allegedly armed pick-up truck and destroying it using a Brimstone missile.
I can remember when someone did a similar cost analysis of U.S. fighters destroying North Vietnamese resupply trucks on the Ho Chi Minh trail. It was really high, as in six figures, per $5,000 Soviet or Chinese-made truck destroyed.
Then in 1972 along came the badass AC-130 gunship outfitted with advanced IR equipment for the pilot and 20/40 millimeter Gatling guns and the coup de grace 105 mm field artillery piece. First night it was deployed it destroyed 19 trucks on the trail in Laos. Completely changed and curtailed how the North Vietnamese sent men and equipment into Cambodia and South Vietnam.
As my late friend Tommy used to say; “I just loved that Shock and Awe”. When I reminded him this wasn’t just a fireworks show and that innocent women and children were being blown to bits as a result, he was strangely silent.
The moral? Stop watching Fox news.
https://youtu.be/IsaRHf7zHQI
I wonder if that pickup said mark 1 plumbing on the door. SSS, those ac130s are one of the most devastating weapons platforms ever conceived. I’ve watched quite a bit of IR film on line, the guys in one of those want you dead, you’re dead. And you die cheaply
El Coyote and starfcker
As a forward air controller in Vietnam, my first experience with the AC-130 was at the Battle of An Loc in May 1972. I had spotted a North Vietnamese tank stuck in the mud near the town and called for air support to take out the tank. An AC-130 arrived. A few minutes later, the tank virtually disappeared after a direct hit from the 105 mm howitzer. It is a very deadly, precise, and effective weapons platform.
The AC-130 and other warplanes like the A-10 are remarkably effective and relatively cheap in asymmetrical warfare, the probability of which we will face in the near or mid-term future is likely around 99%. We don’t need more Buck Rodgers toys for the generals and admirals to fight “the next war.” What we do need is some courageous flag officers to collectively tell the American people, “We’re good for now. The nation is secure from ANY foreign threat. Any. All bases are covered.” Not gonna happen.
You do not want to be on the receiving end of these bad boys. They call it Spectre for a reason.
OL-NKP Thailand 1973