Sunday 17 June 2018

Another triumph for "British" arms

I seem to recall, in the early days of a Middle Eastern conflict, pointing out the disproportionate use by the RAF of a missile costing as much as a terraced house in Port Talbot against a "technical" worth a few hundred dollars. On that occasion, the Ministry of Defence provided TV news programmes with a YouTube-style video as evidence of the strike.

Thankfully, there does not seem to have been equivalent eye-candy accompanying a more recent MoD media release:

A flight of Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s were tasked on Wednesday 9 May to deal with two terrorists who had been spotted by a coalition surveillance aircraft as they moved on foot in the western desert of Iraq, some 25 miles south-east of Ar Rutbah. The Typhoons successfully located the terrorists and used a single Paveway IV guided bomb to strike them.

Private Eye puts the cost of a Raytheon Paveway IV at £70,000 each. An "expensive way to kill terrorists" as the Eye puts it.



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