According to the Accident Investigation Board reviewing the Aug. 1, 2008, crash of an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle near Balad AB, Iraq, a short circuit caused electrical fluctuations to the UAV’s primary control module and other critical components, resulting in the crash of the UAV. The Air Combat Command AIB, which released its report March 5, noted that the loss of the Predator and the two Hellfire missiles it carried was valued at $4 million. The AIB could not determine specifically what component prompted the short circuit, citing as possible sources Alternator #1, the power cable that connects this alternator to the dual alternator regulator, or the dual alternator regulator itself. (ACC release)
The U.S. military needs to wake up to the fact that global dominance is no longer a viable strategy for national defense, because pursuing that unrealizable goal is making the country less safe, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said April 22. Emerging defense technologies like swarms of…