The beauty of drones in
flight hasn't been lost on Afghan bird watchers.
U.S. Combat Drones Fly South for the Afghan Winter (DerPostillon, Germany)
"I usually enjoy watching this actually - from a safe
distance, of course. ... I’ve already photographed several General Atomics MQ-1
Predators, and the occasional MQ-1C Gray Eagle, as well as of a rare MQ-9A
Reaper drone. It’s just those damned stealth drones, like the Lockheed Martin
RQ-170 Sentinel, that you can never get in front of the lens. At this rate,
I’ll never fill up my drone album!"
Kabul:
It is a natural spectacle of breathtaking beauty. Like every year at this time,
the migration of U.S. combat drones has begun over the skies of Afghanistan and
parts of Pakistan. Due to the harsh winter, the unmanned aircraft are no longer
able to find enough cannon fodder, causing them to migrate south. In addition,
the frigid temperatures could damage the weapons and targeting systems of these
cute little killing machines.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
The
Afghans observe the spectacle with mixed feelings.
"I
usually enjoy watching this actually - from a safe distance, of course,"
says Khalid Bayat, an amateur ornithologist from Kunduz. "I’ve already photographed several General
Atomics MQ-1 Predators, and the occasional MQ-1C Gray Eagle, as well as of a
rare MQ-9A Reaper drone. It’s just the damned stealth drones, like the Lockheed
Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, that you can never get in front of the lens. At this
rate, I’ll never fill up my drone album!"
In
the more southerly Kandahar, on the other hand, there is little enthusiasm for
the new arrivals. Shepherd Hamid Khan: "In the
summer there are already quite a few combat drones nesting on regional U.S. bases,
but in the winter one hardly dares leave the house to herd one’s sheep into the
fields, let alone celebrate a wedding."
Sheep herders in Southern
Afghanistan: drones keep them inside more
than before.
That
is why, despite the milder temperatures, southern Afghanis like Hamid Khan would rather stay home and tell their children
about the time before the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s drones came to their
country.
