Pentagon to Increase Drone Flights Over South China Sea
Over the next four years, the number of daily U.S. drone flights is planned to increase by 50 percent.
By Franz-Stefan Gady
August 18, 2015
The U.S. Department of Defense is planning to step up the number of drone surveillance flights by 50 percent over the next four years the Wall Street Journal reports.
A senior defense official told the Wall Street Journal that the Pentagon in particular seeks to improve its intelligence collection capabilities in places such as Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, North Africa, and the South China Sea.
In detail, the new plan envisions an increase of the number of flights from 61 to 90 by 2019. The majority of missions are currently flown by the U.S. Air Force (USAF). However, in addition to around 60 USAF flights, the new plan foresees as many as 16 sorties flown by the U.S. Army, up to four by the Special Forces Command, and around ten by government contractors. The USAF currently shares intelligence feeds from 22 out of its 60 daily sorties with the Central Intelligence Agency.
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