THE UNFRIENDLY SKIES
Weaving our way through deserted back alleys, I can tell we’ve arrived at the front. Not just from the noise of heavy 14.5s, mortar hits, and RPGs, but because driver Hussam hunches down and peers up through the windshield of our grimy Toyota pickup. He’s looking for drones.
“Are you afraid of the drones?” I ask.
“I am not afraid because I am putting my life for my country,” he answers.
I’m not totally buying it. Although the fighters I’m with are young, they’re well-seasoned. They fought in the 2011 Revolution, but now they really don’t have a plan on how to deal with this new threat. All while being partly encircled by the forces of General Khalifa Haftar.
Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) attacked Tripoli on April 4, 2019, and part of his arsenal included UAE-supplied Chengdu Pterodactyl II Wing Loong drones.
The medium altitude long endurance drones like the Wing Loong impart an impersonal feeling of Russian roulette to combat. Add to that Haftar’s hired mercenaries from Darfur and Russia and we’re in a new kind of soulless war — one where the combatants aren’t quite sure who’s killing them and those doing the killing aren’t quite sure who they’re killing. A perfect proxy war.
The Wing Loongs can fire eight Blue Arrow anti-tank missiles but
