Watch RAF Reaper Drone Obliterate ISIS Armored Vehicle With Hellfire Missiles
The U.K. Ministry of Defense (MoD) released dramatic footage Monday that shows the moment a Reaper drone tracked down an ISIS vehicle loaded with bombs and obliterated it with a Hellfire missile fired by an RAF personnel operating the drone from an aircraft hangar thousands of miles away in Lincolnshire, England.
The video shows an ISIS vehicle moving along a remote and dusty road in Iraq, reportedly on Monday, July 6.
The driver stops the vehicle under a palm tree, exits, and flees, apparently aware that he was being tracked.
He parked the bomb-laden vehicle under the palm tree ostensibly to conceal it, but the Reaper detected the presence of the vehicle.
The unmanned RAF Reaper drone, armed with about 10,000 pounds of explosives, was tracking the movements of the vehicle from a height of about 50,000 feet. It launched its payload of Hellfire missiles and hit the target with pinpoint accuracy.
The Reaper drone was operated by personnel of the RAF’s 13 Squadron from an aircraft hangar thousands of miles away from the Middle East in Lincolnshire, England, according to the Daily Mail.
The video shows the vehicle exploding in a ball of flames that rises into the air with thick, obscuring fumes.
According to the MoD, the jihadists had loaded the truck with explosives. They intended to use it against advancing Iraqi troops by parking it near to the road. Roadside trucks loaded with explosives have often been used with deadly effect against Iraqi troops by the jihadists.
The footage demonstrates convincingly the devastating power and precision of the Reaper drone.
The Western allies have used Reaper drones extensively in the fight against ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria. The drones have proved highly effective for hunting down targets and terminating them. They are able to hit targets on the ground with precision from an altitude of up to 50,000 feet and can operate in the sky for days carrying an explosives payload of up to 10,000 pounds.
Figures released by the British MoD this week indicated that since they were deployed in October 2014, RAF’s Reapers have flown more than 500 missions over Iraq and Syria and successfully hit intended targets more than 130 times.
Last week, a U.S. drone killed British jihadi Abu Rahin Aziz and about 10 militants in Raqqa, Syria.
ISIS claimed that young children and several civilians were killed in the airstrike.
According to Pentagon, thousands of ISIS fighters have been killed in coalition bombing campaigns, but despite the carnage, ISIS militants have continued their murderous campaigns in Syria and Iraq.
[Images: MoD; Wikimedia Commons]
