RAF Buys Us Robot Planes to Strike at the Taliban

British pilots are poised to strike the Taliban from computer keyboards thousands of miles away in the American desert. They are about to start targeting hostile forces in southern Afghanistan with weapons attached to unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, the latest weapon in Britain's armory, senior RAF sources say.

The RAF is buying a fleet of American Predator Bs, or Reapers as the US military has named them, armed with bombs and Hellfire missiles. The unmanned aircraft will be operated by RAF pilots based at the American Combined Predator Task Force in Nevada. The deployment of British-owned Predators marks a significant new chapter in the history of UK warfare. They will allow military commanders to follow the movements of suspected Taliban fighters or other hostile groups and attack them.

The growing use of armed UAVs by the Americans has raised potential ethical and legal issues. Some analysts believe that it is difficult to identify legitimate targets through a UAV operating thousands of miles away, however sophisticated its imagery and communications systems.

RAF sources say the risk of civilian casualties is reduced because the unmanned Predators will be operated by pilots. "We need [people who are] air-minded and who know about dropping weapons," said a senior RAF source. The Predators will be commanded by RAF personnel at Creech air force base, America's UAV command center. Officials hope British Predators, operated from Nevada, will start "dropping weapons" within a month.

UAVs were originally designed as reconnaissance aircraft but are now a "hunter-killer" weapons system. The Predators can carry 3,000lbs of bombs and fly for 24 hours. They are operated by line-of-sight observation and satellites.

The RAF has bought three Predators from the US at a cost of about £10m each. defense officials say 12 would be needed to cover the whole of Afghanistan.

In January, an American Predator missile strike was reported to have killed an al-Qaida commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, at a house in Pakistan's Waziristan region. Last October, a CIA-guided Predator fired missiles at houses in the village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal area in Pakistan. The strike was aimed at the deputy leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri. He was not in the village, where up to 18 people were reported to have been killed. The Los Angeles Times reported last year that Predator strikes had killed at least four al-Qaida leaders, but also many civilians.