Yes I guess no one would make that public. I would hope they wouldn't waste a $110,000 missile on something too trivial but I think they probably do so frequently. I heard or read recently that our UAV's/drones have killed over 2000 people. Remember the incident a few years ago when they killed 50 people at a wedding because someone happened to fire an AK47 in the air just as the UAV was flying over. I think they are wasting too much money on war and on the drone wars in Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. They will fire a $110,000 missile to kill 2 guys in a Datsun pickup truck, there's got to be cheaper and more efficient ways of killing people.
Alan
Some of that is BS/Propaganda.
Think of it this way...the CIA is essentially combing the data for clues as to where bad guys might be at any given time, and choosing the best points to make them go bye bye.
IE: Where are they mostly reliably be likely to present us with a good target?
They have very weak intelligence typically, so, whatever they get, will require a lot of connecting of dots to make a picture, and, the pictures are going to get drawn with only a few dots.
Add to that, that the bad guys tend to shelter in places that provide human shields, and, if they don't, they can have some pickups raid local hospitals and strew whatever wounded they need at the strike point to make it look like as much collateral damage as possible.
Then consider the mission costs to send a team of special forces, etc, that deep into enemy held territory, given that a team of special forces, operating covertly, would require a MASSIVE amount of prep to ready themselves, and then more time to GET TO where the baddies were GOING TO BE, based upon that "intelligence".
90% of the time, by the time they'd invested a week in getting there, the baddies are long gone.
So, its not "using a $110k missile INSTEAD OF A $4 bullet", its using a $110k missile instead of a week's labor for a team of special forces AND some $4 bullets....with the option to NOT fire that missile if by the time the drone gets there if the baddies are reported to have left, etc.
IE: A human team will cost ~ the same even if the mission is aborted, as the labor to get ready etc, is the primary cost. The Hellfire is only fired if there's a target, and, stays on the pod if they find its not worth hitting the button, etc.
Figure the MILLIONS spent on a special forces team in the first place, in training, education, equipment, etc. Losing ONE of the men will cost the military MORE than the cost of a Hellfire missile.
If you send in MEN, they are in harms way, and, might get killed. If a Hellfire "dies", its no where near as tragic.
