Drones are quickly becoming a crucial part of many US military and government toolboxes in order to deal with specialized situations.  This morning, I saw that the FAA granted a special exemption to allow drones to help fight massive forest fires happening in Idaho. Police departments are using drones for building searches and crisis situations at a minimum.  And our military uses drones for a wide variety of functions, not the least of which is to be used as an instrument of assassination.

Something important to remember here is that not all drones are armed.  One surveillance drone, Global Hawk, surveillance drone, has a 150 ft wingspan and is half the size of a 747.  It can fly at much higher altitudes and can fly longer than most armed drones. The kinds of intelligence it gathers are certainly magnitudes of order above armed drones or small surveillance drones.  Do we believe it’s acceptable to share this kind of intelligence with our foreign partners? Should the info a Global Hawk gets from surveilling Yemen be given to the SA government for us in their proxy war against the Houthti’s?  Should surveillance of Syria and Palestine be given to Israel? These are important questions in this discussion.

Danny and I bring you our breakdown of drone warfare.  We’ll be taking a break for the next few weeks from the podcast to attend the About Face – Veterans Against the War convention and create some new content to share with you.  See you soon!!

00:35 – President Trump’s remarks in Helsinki

15:04 – The Air Force replacing older generation Predator / Reaper control stations

24:26 – US drone warfare

The Islamic State Is Pioneering a New Type of Drone Warfare – Ben Sullivan – Vice

What The Intercept Found in “The Drone Papers”—And What I Found In Them – Quinta Juricec – LawFare

Navy contracts Raytheon for LOCUST prototype – Brooke Baitinger – UPI

Army to Buy Raytheon’s Coyote Expendable UAS for Drone-Killing Mission – Oriana Pawlyk – Military.com

Recommendations and Report of the Stimson Task Force on US Drone Policy – The Stimson Center

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