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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Drone facts

Air Force officials acknowledge that more than a third of their unmanned Predator spy planes — which are 27 feet long, powered by a high-performance snowmobile engine, and cost $4.5 million apiece — have crashed, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan.....

The Predators and Reapers are now flying 34 surveillance patrols each day in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from 12 in 2006. They are also transmitting 16,000 hours of video each month, some of it directly to troops on the ground....

Predators and Reapers shot missiles on 244 of the 10,949 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008.
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2 Comments:

  • Doesn't this raise all sorts of international law and sovereignty issues? I mean, manned or not, aren't there (ostensibly) legal issues here? With surveillance alone, even.... never mind the death and destruction missions.

    By Blogger -epm, at 8:21 AM  

  • Well, if Pakistan doesn't raise it as an issue, it's not one.

    And right now they're not.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:47 AM  

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