When a Predator unmanned aircraft was used to fire Hellfire missiles at two groups of insurgents lobbing mortars at a U.S. base in Iraq this month, the drone's success made national news.

Helping the Air Force pinpoint the targets was a soldier attached to the Hawai'i National Guard's 229th Military Intelligence Company.

Capt. Michael Desmond, who lives in 'Aiea, and three of his soldiers were enlisted about six weeks ago to help the Air Force and its Predators identify mortar-firing positions near Logistical Support Area Anaconda.

The 27-foot Predator, with a wingspan of 48 feet, runs on a four-cylinder engine. It has two color cameras, radar and forward-looking infrared camera. Even though it can carry two 5-foot laser-guided anti-armor Hellfire missiles, its main mission is surveillance and reconnaissance.

The Air Force is trained to look for weapons systems used by militants, but Desmond and the three other 229th soldiers know what kind of activity to look for, and where to look for it.

"They (the Air Force) have been successful, but in three weeks, we've had three or four instances where we've directly impacted operations," Desmond said from LSA Anaconda.

The partnership scored particularly big on Sept. 5.

When the base came under attack from more than five miles away that morning, a Predator was dispatched. The drone saw a mortar fire and six men operating it. A Hellfire missile was fired from the aircraft.

Twenty minutes later, the base received more mortar fire. The Predator was flown to the new location and spotted insurgents trying to get rid of a mortar tube and extra rounds. Another Hellfire was launched.

Eleven insurgents were killed, and the Predator also was used to track down the wounded.

Spc. Jose Garcia of Texas, who is attached to the 229th, was working with the Air Force on that day.

Desmond, 37, says the Predator strikes were able to destroy a cell particularly active in mortar strikes against LSA Anaconda, where more than 1,000 Hawai'i citizen-soldiers are based.

The cell was known on base as "6-Round Charlie," a reference to the six rounds that usually would be fired each time.

The "indirect fire" mortar and rocket attacks are a daily concern on the network of big bases the U.S. maintains around Iraq, sometimes causing injury or death when one of the long-distance rounds finds its mark.

"I would say morale is a little higher," Desmond said. "We haven't had alerts at night, waking you up in the middle of the night. Really, I think the concern for 6-Round Charlie's been negated. That's not 100 percent, but in the last week, we haven't had any activity out of that area whatsoever."

Until the two Predator strikes, the base received rocket or mortar attacks about every other day, Desmond said.

The drone has been in use in every U.S. conflict since 1995. Some 180 have been built, and the drones — unarmed aerial vehicles or UAVs, in military jargon — recently achieved 150,000 total flight hours.

The 229th Military Intelligence Company flies its own Raven UAVs in Iraq. The Raven is a collapsible surveillance craft with a 5-foot wingspan, and will be replaced with the larger Shadow UAVs upon return to Hawai'i.

In civilian life, Desmond is an imagery analyst with the Defense Department's National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and he had three other soldiers working in the Joint Intelligence Center who are trained imagery analysts.

"That's really how the Air Force came and asked us to help, since we were actually trained in looking for this type of activity and being able to identify mortar systems, IEDs (improvised explosive devices) being laid, and certain activities happening," Desmond said.

Last week, a Predator was called out when there was an attack on a coalition convoy. As a couple of truck trailers burned, the Predator's operators spotted insurgents running between houses and jumping over walls before disappearing into a house, Desmond said.

A couple days later, U.S. forces raided the house, killing two militants and wounding one, he said.

"(The Predator) has been an excellent asset. ... I think we've really influenced the fight over here," Desmond said.

Hawai'i unit helps deliver lethal blow

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.