By Carlo Munoz

Just weeks after American forces handed off control of air operations in Libya to NATO, the White House this week approved the use of armed MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft to take out targets in the North African country.

President Barack Obama approved the use of the drones as part of the international effort to enforce a United Nations-mandated no-fly zone over Libya, as rebels in the country contrinue to wage a civil war against forces loyal to Col. Muammar Qaddafi, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday during a briefing at the Pentagon.

“Obviously, it is an evolving situation, but we saw an opportunity…and the president took it,” Gates said regarding the decision to deploy the unmanned aircraft. The decision to field armed Predators was prompted by a request from NATO for that capability. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is the prime contractor for Predator.

The deployment will consist of two Predator aircraft armed with Hellfire missiles flying two separate Combat Air Patrols (CAPs), each CAP capable of providing 24-hour loiter time over the country, Vice Chariman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. James Cartwright said at the same briefing.

American forces had planned to launch the first Predator CAPs today, the four-star general said, but inclement weather decisions ultimately forces military leaders to cut that mission short.

The armed Predators arrived in theater just as U.S. forces were transitioning operational control of the mission to NATO. At that time, the weapons kits were taken off of the aircraft and they were used primarily in an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance role.

Since the handover to NATO, pro-Qaddafi forces have blugdeoned the ill-equipped and poorly organized rebel forces in Misurata and points east with blistering rocket and artillery attacks, beating those forces back toward the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

The White House decision also comes as France, Italy and the United Kingdom announced they would begin sending liaison officers into Libya, to help advise rebel forces.

That said, Gates and Cartwright were adamant that the administration’s decision to redeploy the Predators in Libya was in no way related to the setbacks being experiences by anti-Qaddafi forces or by decisions made by other NATO countries. Rather, the decision was driven by the changing tactics being used by government forces against the rebels.

“The character of the fight has changed,” Cartwright said, with Qaddafi troops camouflaging artillery and anti-aircraft positions from NATO fighters overhead, and increasingly “digging in [and] nestling up” heavy weaponry in densely populated locations, increasing the change of collateral damage if NATO jets engaged those targets.

Given their abilty to conduct ISR and strike operations at lower altitiudes, and given their proven track record in urban and austere environments, the Predator is the ideal aircraft to take out those increasingly hidden targets, while reducing the risk for collateral damage, Cartwright said.

Despite the introduction of these aircraft into the fight, Gates was clear that the decision was not the first step in an increased role of American forces in the Libyan conflict. The Predator deployment represented “a limited additional role on our part,” he said adding there was no lack of clarity on the American mission in Libya.