The cable news channels are all barking about the "robot attack squadron bound for Iraq" -- even though no one seems to be sure, exactly, when the drones will actually head to the Sandbox. "We're still working that," Lt. Gen. Gary North tells the AP.
North also seems unclear about -- or is spinning -- the role of these Reaper robo-planes. "With more Reapers, I could send manned airplanes home," he's quoted as saying.
Could being the operative word here. With more and more demand for aerial imagery -- and for drone attacks, too -- the more likely outcome is that the Reapers will be used to augment the Air Force's growing presence in Iraq. After all, the thousands of drones already in Iraq hasn't exactly cut down the number of man-in-the-cockpit aircraft there. And at Balad Air Base, north of Baghdad, "the Air Force is building a
400,000-square-foot expansion of the concrete ramp area" now used for Reaper's little brother, the Predator. "That new staging area could be turned over to
Reapers," the AP notes.
Meanwhile, Inside Defense is reporting that "the Air Force is on track to increase the number of unmanned aerial vehicle combat patrols in Iraq and Afghanistan from 12 to 21 by the end of 2009, nearly a year ahead of what service officials had originally planned."
Here is our March write-up on the Reaper robo-planes.
