Soccer Dad

Like Mentor Like Student?

Earlier I posted David Bernstein's comments about the killing Sheikh Yassin:

The Happiest Day of His Life: Yassin: "The day in which I will die as a shahid [martyr] will be the happiest day of my life." So I guess it's win-win.

Well Dr. Rantisi apparently feels similarly:

"It's death by killing or cancer," Rantisi told reporters. "If it's cardiac arrest or an Apache (helicopter), I prefer to be killed by an Apache."

Maybe Israel can grant his wish. With dispatch.
How might that happen? Gregg Easterbrook provides an answer.

Hellfire missiles home on a laser designator shined on the target. Since the strike was accurate, this means Israeli forces either had an agent on the scene with a view of Yassin and pointing a designator toward him, or a small drone aircraft close by. If the latter, an operator miles away would have looked for Yassin through a television link, then controlled a laser designator swivel-mounted aboard the drone. So as not to alert Yassin's bodyguards, the Apache carrying the missiles was either high in the sky and seeming to be passing on its way somewhere else or, more likely, very close to the ground and below the horizon. Helicopters make a lot of noise, plus the Apache has a distinctive loud whine that must by this point be familiar to Hamas; any sign of an Apache coming toward a Hamas figure using standard line-of-sight flight would warn the target to run for cover. The Hellfire was designed to be launched from below the horizon so that Apaches could attack tanks with less danger of return fire; in an urban setting, similar tactics may allow a helicopter to launch missiles before the clamor of its rotors is heard. This page of techno-details shows how a Hellfire can be launched from below the horizon without a direct line-of-sight to its target.

(via Protocols )
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at March 30, 2004 01:15 PM | TrackBack