Originally Posted by
glad rag
I can answer part of the question in that article.
They used the F-35 for a strike mission for the same reason that we sometimes used a B-1 for CAS (not the ground commander's first choice, to be sure, they wanted all A-10's all the time) in Afghanistan.
That's who was on the ATO that day. Given a few interesting days dealing with a similar problem with weapons caches in remote areas in underground locations (over a decade ago) a Predator cant carry a big enough bomb to do what needed doing, as the author suggested.
The article cited 500 lb and 1000 (or 2k) lb bombs as what was delivered: GBU 12 and GBU 32.
Reaper can carry the GBU 12, pred can't. Not sure if a Reaper was available that day.
Are you, or is the author? Did you write that day's ATO?
Beyond the other consideration -- those aircraft are deployed, now let's get some use out of them! -- I will go along with any suspicion that someone, somewhere, further up the chain or command was likely sending inquiries and messages down the chain along the lines of "get one of our new planes a mission, and go blow something up!" I've seen stuff like that IRL too.