64 Drone Bases Located On American Soil

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."

Comments

Re:You're kidding!?!

[CrimsonAvenger]

Anyone who follows the news already knew they used them for training at home. This is not a public secret. In fact, they filmed it from the control centres themselves and military personal even explained this on camera.

And ofcourse the US government is going to use them on their own territory when they need them. Who couldn't do the same thing?

Actually, it's against the law for the US military to perform military operations in the USA (with exceptions for insurrection and war, of course - both of which require an Act of Congress)....

Re:Airplanes and Ships have bases too

[Curunir_wolf]

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.

Right. I mean, they are planning to deploy 30,000 drones over US skies, so obviously they bases for all those drones.