Photograph by Ethan Miller/Getty Images. A CIA drone strike in North Waziristan killed al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader on Monday. Pakistan again complained that drone strikes are “unlawful, against international law and a violation of [its] sovereignty,” but while the country has threatened to shoot down unmanned vehicles in the past, it has never followed through. How hard is it to kill a drone? It depends on the model. Shooting down an MQ-1 Predator or an MQ-9 Reaper, the propeller-driven drones most commonly used to kill terrorists in Pakistan, would be child’s play for a Pakistani Air Force pilot. They’re easy to detect on radar, and they fly at about 100 mph—about the speed of a World War I-era bomber. (The Dassault Mirage 5, one of the most common jets in Pakistan’s military fleet, cruises at just under 600 mph and tops out at nearly 1,500 mph.) They don't normally carry any weapons that could be used in a dogfight, and their lack of maneuverability makes them vulnerable to missiles fired from the ground.

While the Predator and the Reaper are easy targets, the military has other, more sophisticated drones. The RQ-170 Sentinel, for example, is much more difficult to detect on radar, and its jet engines enable it to fly at just below the speed of sound. In the months before Osama Bin Laden’s killing, Sentinels flew between the seams of Pakistan’s radar systems to spy on his Abbottabad compound. But if the Pakistanis did spot a Sentinel, it wouldn't be impossible to destroy. drones with camera mountsMilitary experts still argue over whether the Sentinel that went down in Iran last year was shot or simply malfunctioned.remote control drone gps At least two countries have brought down U.S. drones in the past. best drone for gopro 4 silver

Serbian air defense destroyed 15 of them during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. (There were even rumors that the Serbians managed to hit one with a machine gun fired from an open helicopter door.) In 2002, a Predator drone equipped with air-to-air Stinger missiles took on an Iraqi MiG in the no-fly zone. The drone was easily dispatched. Pakistan’s reluctance to make good on its threat to shoot down a U.S. drone has nothing to do with capability—it’s just part of the complex relationship between the two countries. parrot ar drone kapazaWhile Pakistan’s civilian leaders bristle at U.S. military operations inside the country, the Pakistani military sometimes finds drone attacks useful. black hornet drone buyMany intelligence analysts, for example, believe that the Pakistanis were far more interested than U.S. officials in the 2009 killing of Baitullah Mehsud, a terrorist leader who was likely involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. how much does a raven uav cost

The CIA may have used its drones to hunt down Mehsud in part as a favor. Got a question about today’s news? Explainer thanks Peter W. Singer of Brookings, author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. Thanks also to reader Derek Hansen for asking the question.There are 4 very different Predators, but the media refer to all as the Predator. The B, which is what Border Patrol flies, is equipped with a 900 HP turbo prop engine, which is not very quiet as compared to a Cessna. However, you probably can't hear it once above 5 kft AGL. If you could be a passenger on that vehicle it would be very loud.It sounds like this ...This a video of an Israeli drone flying over Gaza To quote John Oliver: "Yemen, home to 26 million Yemeni people, and 27 million American drones." While these numbers may be slightly exaggerated I started to wonder. As far as I know, military drones are used primarily for survaillance, meaning that they circle a potential target for hours on end to gather intelligence.

I immediately thought, that they would be spotted quickly, and any illegal activity would cease. Since they seem to be effective though, this can't really be true. So my question is: Given typical operational parameters during survaillance, can military drones, like the Predator, be spotted with the naked eye if they are circling above you? I tried to find an answer with some quick calculations of my own. I can see quite a lot of airliners flying above me, and I can see their bodies quite easily. Airliners are larger though. Some sizes I could gather are: Body width: 0.83m (estimated from picture) When I look at just the length of the aircraft, I can calculate the angular size of the object in the sky if I know the altitude. I assume the A320 flies at around 32000 feet, or 9753m. For the drone I have no idea. But it can fly at 7620m and I would assume it stays a bit below, so I assume 6000m. The angle of the object is then: The human eye has a resolution of 0.5-1 arc minutes, or 0.0125°.

For the given aircraft I come to these values: Angle = Atan(37.57/9753) = 0.22° Angle = Atan(8.23/6000) = 0.08° So from the length, both aircraft should be visible. However, that doesn't seem to make sense, because they need to be wide enough as well. So for the body width's I get: Angle = Atan(3.96/9753) = 0.024° Angle = Atan(0.83/6000) = 0.008° So the A320 should be visible quite comfortably, while the drone should be invisible to the naked eye. This is all theoretical. I don't know the operation of the predator, especially how high it flies. I also don't know what really determines visibility. Does the wingspan alter the numbers? Can anyone share any actual insight? closed as too broad by vasin1987, SMS von der Tann, kepler22b, mins, Zizouz212 Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. Avoid asking multiple distinct questions at once. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question.