Brian Williams - Predators

■ Since the United States began its drone war in Pakistan, more than two thousand people have been killed by U.S. drones. 48That is more than the total U.S. combat loses in Afghanistan in a decade of fighting.

■ In December 2010 the U.S. Air Force announced that it had test-flown the X-37B, a drone modeled on the space shuttle, into space. This development caused many drone critics to worry that the Air Force was involved in weaponizing drones for space warfare. 49

■ In February 2012 the NATO alliance agreed to deploy a fleet of its own drones after seeing how useful the American drones were in the joint NATO-U.S. air war on Gaddafi forces in Libya. 50NATO has already begun building a 1.3 billion Euro drone base at Sigonella in Sicily. 51

Weaponized and surveillance drones are clearly the future of American counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations, and perhaps even of conventional warfare. Whereas the first drone attack on al Qaeda, which took place in Yemen in 2002, was greeted with tremendous coverage by the international media, drone strikes today are considered so mundane that they are now relegated to small articles on newspapers’ back pages, if they are picked up at all. The vast majority of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, seems to have accepted this radical development with little real debate. In fact 83 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s stepped up drone policy, including liberal Democrats, 77 percent of whom support the president on the issue of drone strikes. 52For Americans, drone attacks in distant locations seem to be an accepted part of the post-9/11 world.

Despite the CIA’s reluctance to enter the drone assassination business prior to 9/11, former CIA head David Petraeus once said, “We can’t get enough drones.” 53In 2010 former defense secretary Robert Gates said, “We are buying as many Reapers as we possibly can.” 54That same year the commander of the 147th Reconnaissance Wing, Col. Ken Wisian, said of drones, “The demand for this kind of capacity is insatiable.” 55

With little discussion, the United States (along with as many as fifty other nations) has inaugurated what amounts to a drone revolution. Although the CIA is the only intelligence agency in the world that currently flies killer drones beyond its borders to hunt terrorists and insurgents, it is perhaps only a matter of time before Russia, China, Israel, and other countries deploy drone fleets abroad in search of their foes. 56David Cortright of Notre Dame has fretted, “What kind of a future are we creating for our children? We face the prospect of a world in which every nation will have drone warfare capability, in which terror can rain down from the sky at any moment without warning.” 57

As Cortright and others ponder the future of remote-control aerial killers and their impact on war and counterterrorism, drones are increasingly coming to shape the way the United States and other countries hunt and kill those they deem to be enemies. Peter Singer, author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century , best sums up the new drone reality: “The [drone] technology is here. And it isn’t going away. It will increasingly play a role in our lives…. The real question is: How do we deal with it?” 58

MQ-1 PREDATOR

Primary Function:Armed reconnaissance, airborne surveillance, and target acquisition

Contractor:General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.

Power Plant: Rotax 914F four-cylinder engine

Thrust:115 horsepower

Wingspan:55 feet (16.8 meters)

Length:27 feet (8.22 meters)

Height:6.9 feet (2.1 meters)

Weight:1,130 pounds (512 kilograms) empty

Fuel Capacity: 665 pounds (100 gallons)

Speed: Cruise speed around 84 miles per hour (70 knots), up to 135 miles per hour

Range: Up to 770 miles (675 nautical miles)

Ceiling:Up to 25,000 feet (7,620 meters)

Armament:Two laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire missiles

Crew:Two (pilot and sensor operator)

Unit Cost:$20 million (fiscal 2009 dollars; includes four aircraft, a ground control station, and a Predator primary satellite link) 1

MQ-9 REAPER

Primary Function:Remotely piloted hunter-killer weapon system

Contractor:General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.

Power Plant:Honeywell TPE331-10GD turboprop engine

Thrust:900 shaft horsepower maximum

Wingspan:66 feet (20.1 meters)

Length:36 feet (11 meters)

Height:12.5 feet (3.8 meters)

Weight:4,900 pounds (2,223 kilograms) empty

Maximum takeoff weight:10,500 pounds (4,760 kilograms)

Fuel Capacity:4,000 pounds (602 gallons)

Payload:3,750 pounds (1,701 kilograms)

Speed:Cruise speed around 230 miles per hour (200 knots)

Range:1,150 miles (1,000 nautical miles)

Ceiling:Up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters)

Armament:Combination of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, GBU-12 Paveway II, and GBU-38 JDAMs

Crew:Two (pilot and sensor operator)

Unit Cost:$53.5 million (fiscal 2006 dollars, includes four aircraft with sensors)

Initial Operating Capability:October 2007 2

1. Declan Walsh, “Is Baitullah Mehsud Now Public Enemy No 1 for the US?” Guardian , April 5, 2009.

2. “41 Dead in Pakistan Suicide Bombing: Officials,” Agence-France Presse, December 25, 2010, http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/afp/41-dead-in-pakistan-suicide-bombing-officials/413540; “Pakistan Assessment 2012,” South Asia Terrorism Portal, http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/(accessed on February 19, 2013); Shahan Mufti, “Suicide Attacks a Growing Threat in Pakistan,” Christian Science Monitor , October 10, 2008.

3. Sabrina Tavernise, “Deaths at Hands of Militants Rise in Pakistan,” New York Times , January 14, 2009.

4. “Pro-Taliban Commander Threatens Benazir with Suicide Attacks,” AndhraNews , October 5, 2007, http://www.andhranews.net/Intl/2007/October/5/Taliban-commander-18068.asp; Bill Roggio, “Pakistan Implicates Baitullah Mehsud in Bhutto Assassination,” Long War Journal , December 28, 2007, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/12/pakistan_implicates.php. See also Philip Reeves, “Did Baitullah Mehsud Kill Benazir Bhutto?” All Things Considered , National Public Radio, January 16, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18159635.

5. “Taliban Commander Baitullah Mehsud,” Newsweek , April 3, 2009.

6. Bill Roggio, “Taliban Capture over 100 Pakistani Soldiers in South Waziristan,” Long War Journal , August 31, 2007, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/08/taliban_capture_over.php.

7. Imtiaz Ali and Craig Whitlock, “Taliban Commander Emerges as Pakistan’s ‘Biggest Problem,’” Washington Post , January 10, 2008.

8. White House, “Remarks by the President on a New Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan,” press release, March 27, 2009, http://m.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-a-New-Strategy-for-Afghanistan-and-Pakistan/.

9. “Scenic Pakistani Valley Falls to Taliban Militants,” Associated Press, December 29, 2008.