Today, he said, those are gone, but ISIL is using other vehicles that are much more crude.
ISIL’s drones, he said, are small commercial off-the-shelf unmanned quadcopters that can stay up for about 45 minutes and can be made to carry small munitions that are dropped on Iraqi security forces and their positions.
“While I won't go into any of the technical capabilities that we use on these ISIL drones, what we have found is that we're able to bring to bear some of our technical capabilities and then the Iraqis are able to couple that with much of their direct-fire weapon systems” Sylvia said.
“As a result of us working together hand-in-hand, he said, “we've been able to bring down these ISIL drones and have made them much less effective than they were in the beginning.”
Improved Iraqi Forces
Sylvia said that over the past nine months he’s seen a great transformation in the Iraqi security forces.
“When we first began these operations, the first village that we liberated together was a small village,” he said, and the ISF sent a brigade to attack 30 to 40 ISIL fighters in the village, thinking that’s how much combat power would be needed.
“What we've witnessed now … since that day back in May is that they have increased their ability to conduct combined arms maneuver,” Sylvia continued. “It has been a growing capability.”
He added, “Today in Mosul, what you'll see is the Counter Terrorism Service advancing on one axis; you'll see the Federal Police advancing on another axis, and you'll see the Iraqi army advancing on a third axis -- each one of them now able to operate inside a dense urban environment and to continue to make … progress every single day against ISIL.”
(Source: US Dept of Defense)
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