Iran military commander Qassem Soleimani and his associate
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed on Sunday by US airstrike, a move that President
Donald Trump has termed ‘shutting down his dealings.’
In this week’s review, News 9 Kenya takes you through facts
and findings about a drone that took down Soleimani and his associates.
It is an MQ9 Reaper drone manufactured by a company called
General Atomics. The MQ9 Reaper is a marvel of aeronautical science and
engineering.
Acting on intelligence that Soleimani would land in the
middle of the night, it arrived in the vicinity of the Baghdad Airport before
he landed and when he landed; its sophisticated imaging system kicked in and
started transmitting his movements back to those who had sent it for analysis.
The Reaper drone came loaded with 2 Hellfire missiles all
for the job.
A combination of a silent propeller engine, the capacity to
hit a height of up to 25,000 meters and the cover of darkness made it difficult
to detect.
With a range of 1,850 km it didn’t need to be near the
targets to take them out. Just as the convoy carrying Soleimani, Mohandas and
their bodyguards had passed the airport’s low perimeter wall, a command was
issued by operators remotely piloting the unmanned aerial vehicle deep in
Nevada to unleash the missiles.
One missile hit the car carrying Soleimani and Mohandas and
the other hit the one carrying their bodyguards, setting all of them on fire
with deadly precision. There are allegations that Mohandas was vapourised after
the missile established contact with their vehicle.
It was accompanied by an identical drone in case it was
brought down. The second drone never did anything as the job was done as had
been planned.
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