The Air Force has also sent about a dozen Rover laptop computers to Iraq, which allow ground spotters to receive live video feeds from Predators.

For all the advances in unmanned technology, however, the air campaign was most effective when human ground spotters were present, senior Pentagon officials said.

Since biplanes first dropped crude bombs in World War I, the military has been using ground spotters to direct pilots to targets.

Last year, three American soldiers were killed when a ground spotter gave his own coordinates to the bombardier aboard a B-52 bomber.

But the inquiry said ground spotters confirmed antiaircraft fire.

The final checkpoint was within visual range of ground spotters so positive visual identification could be made before final landing clearance was issued.

The ground spotters had issued the landing clearance early, considering the cloud cover- maybe it wasn't as thick as it looked from up here, Shen thought.

Pilots can spot targets for each other using their lasers, or rely on ground spotters.

Thus, most of the attack aircraft sent aloft over Afghanistan have circled while looking for enemy troops, awaiting guidance from surveillance aircraft and ground spotters.

Soldiers and ground spotters receive live video images from the Predator on specially equipped laptop computers.