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64 Drone Bases Located On American Soil

Posted by samzenpus on from the protect-and-serve dept.

MikeatWired writes "We like to think of the drone war as something far away, fought in the deserts of Yemen or the mountains of Afghanistan. But we now know it's closer than we thought, writes Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai at Danger Room. There are 64 drone bases on American soil. That includes 12 locations housing Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, which can be armed. Public Intelligence, a non-profit that advocates for free access to information, released a map of military UAV activities in the United States on Tuesday. Assembled from military sources — especially this little-known June 2011 Air Force presentation (.pdf) — it is arguably the most comprehensive map so far of the spread of the Pentagon's unmanned fleet. What exact missions are performed at those locations, however, is not clear. Some bases might be used as remote cockpits to control the robotic aircraft overseas, some for drone pilot training. Others may also serve as imagery analysis depots."

19 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. American Weapons Found in United States by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    News at 11.

    1. Re:American Weapons Found in United States by FriendlyLurker · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Drones, Keeping America Safe.... NOT!

  2. Woah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wait, you mean the American military has bases on American soil?! Well stop the fucking presses!

    1. Re:Woah! by Robert+Zenz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah! Totally right! We need to end that freaking military occupation of land which rightfully belongs to the Native Americans!

    2. Re:Woah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Wake up.

      Slashdot is NOT the Twilight Zone. It is merely the reflection of that Twilight Zone which is now the USA. The USA today is a full-fledged national security surveillance police state on the very cusp of martial law & military dictatorship. The Republic is dead, no confirmation needed or wanted from NetCraft. The Constitution has been shredded. The Bill of Rights has been destroyed. Congress has relinquished all their powers to the Unitary Executive. The dictatorship of which George W. Bush (The Lessor) spoke so admiringly is in place.

      An African, born in Kenya, with British colonial citizenship, is now 'our' President. He is (nominally) a Muslim, although he has a long association with Communist 5th columnists. Even more confusing (to small minds), Obama is a bought-and-paid-for tool of the international banksters. How else to explain how a purportedly Constitutional Law Scholar be the head of 'our' government during the final destruction of the Constitution & Bill of Rights?

    3. Re:Woah! by flyingsquid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Still it must be pointed out that even though we always had at least some standing Federal force, it is historical that there was great distrust of standing armies at the time of the founding of the US

      Arguing about the intent of the Founding Fathers is a bullshit argument. Maybe it was the intent of the Founding Fathers not to have a large standing army. So what? It was also the intent of the Founding Fathers that women not be allowed to vote, that black people could be bought and sold as property and counted as 3/5 of a human being, and Indians should be evicted from their lands.

      There are certain core principles that are timeless- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, government with the consent of the governed, freedom of speech and religion. But precisely how we promote those things has to change with the times and the technology. We can't all run around in tricorns with muskets, trading negroes and telling our wives to stay home, just because that's how the Founding Fathers would have done it.

  3. You're kidding!?! by DrgnDancer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... Really?

    There are also more US Army, Air Force, and Navy bases in the US than in the rest of the world combined. Many of them have tanks, warplanes, aircraft carriers, howitzers, and many other weapons that can be loaded and armed with live ammunition and dangerous explosives. I mean, who knew right? Oh wait... Everybody knew. Of course we have drone bases in the US. They have to train people, provide headquarters and on going operational training for units not deployed, stored undeployed hardware... this is the stupidest thing I've ever read.

    What did these guys think? They send untested multimillion dollar drones over to Yemen where they hand them to an untrained unit and expect them to just figure out how they work in the field? It's just like any other military operation: for every deployed unit there are probably five waiting in reserve, getting readiness training, refitting, etc. Most of that happens in the US.

    --
    I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
    1. Re:You're kidding!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They send untested multimillion dollar drones over to Yemen where they hand them to an untrained unit and expect them to just figure out how they work in the field?

      Well, considering the targets dont shoot back they might just as well do the training in the field.

    2. Re:You're kidding!?! by RCourtney · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I think the difference that might make people rightly question how UAVs on American soil are used even for just training purposes is that they are primarily for spying purposes. My biggest questions are:

      While on training missions within the United States what surveillance is done with them for the purposes of training?

      What information is stored from those training missions?

      How is that information used or is it shared with the CIA, FBI or local police?

      I think all of those are valid and necessary questions given what we know from our country's past actions and the skirting of domestic safeguards since 9/11 in the name of national security.

    3. Re:You're kidding!?! by DrgnDancer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't disagree. Your questions are valid, and had the article been written in a reasonable fashion, asking those questions and wondering how we might find out the answers it would have been a much more useful piece. As it is the piece is a written in tones intended to make the reader panicked over the hardly surprising fact that the US military is storing and using US military hardware inside the US. As if anyone should be even slightly surprised over this fact. Of course we're doing this, the bulk of all US military personnel and equipment are in the US; and except for a few periods of heavy action (the World Wars, mainly), the bulk of US military personnel and hardware are *always* located in the US. Home territory is simply the most convenient place to do most of what nondeployed need to do.

      --
      I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
    4. Re:You're kidding!?! by ebuck · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They send untested multimillion dollar drones over to Yemen where they hand them to an untrained unit and expect them to just figure out how they work in the field?

      Well, considering the targets dont shoot back they might just as well do the training in the field.

      The idea that our military attacks peaceful targets that don't even bother to defend themselves is beyond ridiculous. You should be ashamed for insuinuating such. You are demeaning the job of the military, and belittling the risk they are taking on your behalf.

      Whether you desire the military to be active in a particular location or not, give them the respect due to a person who is willing to follow out the wishes of our government, despite their personal feelings, in the hope that we do make the world a better place.

  4. A bit sensationalist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "But we now know it's closer than we thought" It has been common knowledge that drones are stationed on and piloted from US soil. Just wait until the author finds out how many soldiers, tanks, and even nuclear bombs are also located on US soil.

  5. Airplanes and Ships have bases too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We keep fighter jets, ships and even nuclear missiles on American soil (and waters) should we be worried about those too? It's barely newsworthy! I'd actually be surprised if there weren't drone bases here.

  6. Many are for science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I know quite well that many of these are for things like weather and hurricane monitoring. They're certainly not all deployed to kill people and watch for terrorists.

  7. Come on, Slashdot ... seriously. by tgd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You don't have to try this hard to jump the shark. The shark was jumped a decade ago.

    These stories are just making a mockery of the mockery that Slashdot has become.

    Just to keep the ball rollin', there's probably GPL violations, Microsoft software and patented things at those bases, too!

  8. An airbase is an airbase. by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And the USAF has many of them in the USA. Why do they suddenly become especially evil because some of the aircraft are unmanned?

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
    1. Re:An airbase is an airbase. by virg_mattes · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's the nature of the device in question. There are many reasons to have an airbase in the continental U.S., like training and defense in the case of attack. Drones, on the other hand, currently serve one and only one purpose, and that's aerial surveillance. Having drones based in the continental U.S. is only useful if the drones are being used over U.S. territory (failing border patrol) and having the U.S. military running surveillance essentially on civilian populations raises the hackles of many people. We've heard the whole "we'll only use it against the bad guys!" line too many times to believe it any more.

      Virg

  9. Mt. Washington, NH a drone base? Really? by c0d3g33k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Mount Washington in New Hampshire's White Mountains shows up on the map, which surprised me a bit. It is in a fairly remote area (relative to major population centers) and happens to be one of the major tourist attractions in the area (Don't forget your "This car climbed Mt. Washington" bumper sticker if you make it up and down the Mt. Washington Auto Road). There's not a whole lot there - a cafe and weather station at the peak, hiking trails, forest land and ski resorts nearby. It's located within a State Park. This suggests the disclaiming statements at the end of the summary probably apply to a lot of the 64 "drone bases" referred to by the dramatic headline. As the highest peak in the Northeast (6,288 ft or 1,917 m), it seems like a good spot for communications or sensing equipment. Or, since the weather is quite wild and variable at the summit (held the record for the highest recorded wind gust for 76 years), it could be a good spot to stress-test a drone under severe conditions. Hardly a "Drone Base".

  10. Incorrect info by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At least one marker is totally incorrect. Syracuse NY, Hancock Field, 174th Fighter Wing (ANG) shows its status as "Future". As of March 2010, they sent the last of their F-16's out and fully transitioned to MQ-9 Reapers.

    Wonder what else here is incorrect.