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Behind the Scenes With America's Drone Pilots

An anonymous reader writes "As President Obama meets with advisors on an Afghanistan strategy today (who are now leaning more toward Joe Biden's more-drones policy), and even as Al Qaeda claims it's not all that scared of drones, the new issue of Esquire takes the first real in-depth look at the American military's UAV build-up. Defense geek Brian Mockenhaupt spends some time on the ground in Afghanistan, as well as back at the Pentagon, where the pilots ('more like snipers than fighter pilots') are playing a kind of role-playing game, getting to know terrorists' daily ins and outs. Looks like these Reaper drones are the real wave of the future, eh?"

3 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. Re:infernal machines by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    czarangelus - We've been missing you on Fark.com. Please come home.

  2. Re:infernal machines by czarangelus · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I'm permabanned from Fark. :)

    --
    When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
  3. Re:I hate to say this... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Not really- when reading the al Qaida link above, it made me wonder if a top-secret weapon today was smart dust.

    In other words, who needs a network of spies if you can use a network of bluetooth-enabled robots less than a milimeter in diameter that stick to clothing?

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.