The American “Terrorists hunter” UAV’s will stay under CIA control
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The Obama administration has floated the idea of putting the CIA’s controversial targeted killing operations under the control of the uniformed armed services. But sources familiar with the still-classified program, which uses unmanned aircraft to kill suspected terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen, says the shift would be difficult to implement and would make little difference.
All of the specially outfitted Reaper and Predator UAVs used in the CIA’s program actually belong to the Air Force.
According to Defense News in all, the CIA controls more than 80 remotely piloted vehicles, or about one-third of the Air Force’s fleet of Reapers and Predators, according to an official familiar with the program. That figure has not previously been disclosed. The Predators, known as MQ-1s, and the Reapers, known as MQ-9s, are manufactured by General Atomics.
The Air Force counts its unmanned aerial force in combat air patrols, or CAPs. Each patrol is made up of about four UAVs, so that one of the drones can always be flying over a target while the other three are being repaired, refueled, or in transit. The Air Force has almost 260 UAVs, which yields 60 patrols; it says it wants to increase that to 65.
The 80 Air Force UAVs assigned to the CIA give the intelligence agency enough air power to stalk 20 targets persistently, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for months on end.
Both the CIA and Air Force declined to comment for this story. Air Force Maj. Mary Danner-Jones, a service spokeswoman, said in an email that “The Air Force isn’t going to comment on or discuss the missions of other government agencies.”
The CIA has outfitted its Air Force UAVs, all purchased from General Atomics, with special features, sources say. They say the agency has a more “agile” contracting process than the Air Force.
The refits include four-bladed propellers, which enable the CIA UAVs to take off from shorter runways and may give them a higher operating ceiling as well. With more blades, “you can slice through more air,” one UAV expert said.
The UAVs assigned to the CIA also carry more advanced sensors. For example, they shoot high-definition, 1080p full-motion video, while the Air Force UAV sensors offer just standard definition. Air Force drones may be used as much to gather intelligence as for airstrikes, where CIA UAVs are configured so they can watch, gather intelligence, and eventually kill.
