Predator UAV shot down over Syria

An unarmed American MQ-1 Predator surveillance drone was shot down over Syria on March 17 while flying in an area the U.S. military had not previously operated, over a region known as a power base for President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. officials said. The Defense Department lost contact with the aircraft over the northern Latakia Province along Syria’s northern Mediterranean coast - home to many Alawites, a minority Shi’ite Muslim sect to which Assad belongs. Syrian TV aired video showing a charred metal mass, including a plate bearing the name of an American aeronautics company (presumably General Atomics, but not reported in this story) and an aircraft wing. Syrian officials told Reuters the [USAF-operated] drone was shot down with a rocket. General Atomics is the prime contractor for Predator. There are multiple subcontractors: Versatron / Wescam for the electro-optical Skyball Gimbal; Northrop Grumman for the synthetic aperture radar; L3 Communication for the wideband satellite communications link; and Boeing for the intelligence workstation and mission planning system. (Washington Post, 03/19/15) Central Mississippi Note: GA operates an Electromagnetic System Group manufacturing and test facility at Shannon, Miss, that designs and fabricates linear motors, superconducting and conventional rotating motors, an advanced launch and recovery systems for aircraft carriers, including the new Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78).