The U.S. military aims to develop more sophisticated, high-tech drones and surveillance aircraft that can collect intelligence a senior Air Force leader said on Thursday.
Under pressure from Pentagon leaders and Obama, the Drone-loving Peace Laureate, the US Air Force has already dramatically increased the number of armed and unarmed drones over Afghanistan and Iraq. But there are growing worries that despite the carnage the drones have caused and the 'collateral damage' they do, the U.S. still wants aircraft able to gather information and wage even more lethal electronic attacks. The Pentagon is keenly aware that the next war could be against an enemy with a well-equipped Air Force and sophisticated military instead of out-gunned and outnumbered nationalists and anti-US colonialist guerrillas armed with guns and roadside bombs.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates has pressed the Air Force to boost the number of drones over Afghanistan and Iraq to increase intelligence and surveillance for U.S. ground troops. In response, the Air Force has gone from a handful of drones operating 24 hours a day in early 2007 to 45 as of Tuesday this week.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Philip Breedlove, deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements. said that by January, the Air Force's drones will have logged a million hours of combat air patrols over war zones. Their goal is to have 50 of the 24-hour air patrols operating by the end of Sept. 2011, and 65 by the same month in 2013.
The so-called "Gorgon Stare" sensor is undergoing final testing at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada and is expected arrive in Afghanistan in December. The sensor of course is named after a Greek mythological gorgon, whose stare reputedly would turn a person to stone. Great news for the hundreds of innocent Afghan villagers who are going to die as a result. I wonder if Karzai has his pre-prepared statements ready for condemning the latest US incompetece in the killing of even more civilians.
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