US Air Force reveals $3 billion plan to expand drone force
The US Air Force has unveiled plans to massively increase its unmanned aircraft and pilots to ease pressure on the current drone force after nearly twenty years of combat.
The $3 billion plan would add 75 MQ-9 Reaper drones to the current fleet of 175 Reapers and 150 MQ-1 Predators, increasing the number of drone squadrons from eight to 17, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The proposed expansion, which must be approved by the US Congress, also envisions adding up to 3,500 drone pilots and support staff as well as five more operations centers at bases around the country.
The US Air Force currently runs most of its drone operations around the world from a single site, Creech Air Force Base, in Nevada.
“We’re responding to a demand signal that is current from combatant commanders,” Air Combat Command spokesman Benjamin Newell told Defense One.
“We don’t make the decision to bulk up the force in response to a specific threat. Commanders say they want more of X. We provide more of X,” he added.
Newell said the proposed ramp-up is a multi-purpose scheme to meet the growing demand for unmanned operations. “It’s going to be a number of things that they’re going to be doing. Some of it will be operational. Some of it will be training. Some of it will be testing.”
The plan comes as the Pentagon has stepped up airstrikes in Iraq and Syria and is facing a shortage of pilots and crews to operate Predators and Reapers for aerial surveillance of war zones.
The Reaper is a larger, heavier and more powerful version of its strategic sibling Predator. Both aircraft are manufactured by General Atomics.
“Right now, 100 percent of the time, when an MQ-1 or MQ-9 crew goes in, all they do is combat,” Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command, told the LA Times. “So we really have to build the capacity.”
The five new drone operations centers would cost about $1.5 billion to build, the Air Force said. Each base would have 400 to 500 pilots and crew personnel for another $1.5 billion.
Faced with a shortage of pilots, the US Air Force has hired civilian defense contractors to fly combat drones--a move some critics say is illegal.
The US military conducts assassination and spying drone operations in several Muslim countries. The Pentagon says the campaign targets militants but many civilians have lost their lives in the attacks.
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