Air Force ramps up drone war

[The Northerner]

New documents reveal plans to more than quadruple Reaper missions by 2016

“As the wars wind down,” is a phrase often heard in Washington these days, whether from Time’s Pentagon correspondent Mark Thompson or ProPublica’s T. Christian Miller, or Veterans for Common Sense. The suggestion, not unfounded, is that as the United States withdraws from Iraq and plans to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, the U.S. soldiers will be leaving foreign battlefields.

But don’t expect the worldwide drone war now being waged in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen to wind down. To the contrary, an Air Force announcement posted online this week indicates the Pentagon anticipates more than quadrupling the size of the global drone war over the next four years. If that happens the number of suspected terrorists killed, the “deep resentment” provoked in the targeted countries, and the terrible civilian casualties are likely to grow as well.

The tip-off is found on FedBizOps.gov, the government’s site for contractors where the Air Force announced on Tuesday it is seeking “industry input on how best to support Air Combat Command’s remotely piloted aircraft missions.” “Support will consist of aircraft, ground control station, and Predator Primary Satellite Link maintenance, weapons loading for both aircraft, [and] munitions build-up for MQ-9 aircraft,” the announcement says, referring to the Reaper drone which has a 66-foot wingspan and can carry a 500-pound laser guided bomb.

A timetable included in the announcement says that the Reapers are now launched from two locations and carry out five sorties per day. The Air Force anticipates that activity will double in 2013 to four locations and 14 sorties a day. By 2015, the scope of the Reaper program is expected to double again to nine locations carrying out 46 sorties a day. By 2016, the plan is that Reapers will be launched from 11 locations carrying out 66 sorties per day.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2012/04/05/air_force_ramps_up_drone_war/singleton/


How does more funding for drones, which have been used to slaughter countless innocent civilians and violate the sovereignty of foreign countries, benefit the US at all?

Certainly more backlash resulting from civilian deaths isn't one of them...

[gratuitous]

1. The US benefits because defense contractors benefit

And any backlash from civilian deaths - regrettable, too bad so sad, civilian deaths - isn't going to be visited on the movers and shakers who put these programs in place. They'll be too busy counting profits, anyway. And come on, aren't you really secretly thrilled by the prospect of dying for these policies? Just a little?

[woo me with science]

2. K&R

[woo me with science]

3. Kick