U.S. Air Force Reveals Details On Some Of Its Most Secretive Drone Units When Awarding Medals To Its Crews

Meritorious Service Medals, in front, and Air Force Commendation Medals with the R devices. USAF

The Warzone/The Drive: USAF Reveals Details About Some Of Its Most Secretive Drone Units With New Awards

The service gave out medals with a new "remote" operations device to one drone crew for their role in a controversial targeted strike.

The U.S. Air Force has handed out its first medals with an “R” device indicating the award is in relation to “remote” operations involving drones. In doing so, the service has also offered a rare acknowledgment of the secretive activities of its 732nd Operations Group and provided unusually specific details about a mission to take out an individual terrorist.

At a ceremony on July 11, 2018, U.S. Air Force Colonel Julian Cheater, commander of the 432nd Wing presented Meritorious Service Medals and Air Force Commendation Medals with the R device to five airmen from both the 732nd and 432nd Operations Groups. The Wing controls both units and their assigned squadrons. The Air Force did not say which individuals had received which medals and referred to them only by first names due to operational security concerns.

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Update: Why Did The Air Force Withhold The Names Of 5 Drone Operators Getting Awards? (Task & Purpose)

WNU Editor: These drone operators have killed a number of high-value targets in the past few years. It is best to keep their identities secret.

A Look At Some Of The U.S. Air Force’s Most Secretive Drone Squadrons

The Warzone/The Drive: Shedding Some Light On The Air Force's Most Shadowy Drone Squadron

We've been able to uncover a lot of details about the secretive reconnaissance squadron and an obscure detachment that preceded its establishment.

One of the U.S. Air Force’s most secretive drone squadron appears to have been hiding, at least in part, in plain sight for at least five years. Following an in-depth investigation, including official statements and information we previously obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, we at The War Zone can now provide an exclusive and unprecedented look at what is now known as the 44th Reconnaissance Squadron and offer insight as to what tasks the shadowy unit might be performing today.

The 44th Reconnaissance Squadron officially stood up at Creech Air Force Base on April 1, 2015. At that time, it joined the 732nd Operations Group, part of the Air Force’s main drone unit, the 432nd Wing, which also calls the base located north of Las Vegas in Indian Springs, Nevada home.

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WNU Editor: Another sign on how drones have become a critical part of the U.S. military.

The U.S. Air Force Wants To Be Able To Quickly Set-Up And Refuel Its Drones At It's FARPs

The Warzone/The Drive: Glimpse Of The Future?: MC-130 Sets Up Forward Refueling Point For MQ-9 Reaper Drone

The ability to rush small detachments of unmanned aircraft to remote, forward locations could enable all new operational concepts.

The idea of the forward arming and refueling point, or FARP, where transport aircraft quickly set up a temporary site for other planes and helicopters to take on more fuel and reload, sometimes without even shutting down their engines, is hardly new. But the U.S. Air Force also uses the procedure to support unmanned aircraft, which allow it to be more flexible about how it deploys and employs drones and could open up additional operational possibilities in the future.

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WNU Editor: Another indication on the growing role and importance of drones in U.S. operations.

Inside The Unit That Tracks Targets For U.S. Drones

Analysts working in the top-secret SCIF room (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) at McConnell air force base in Wichita. Photograph: Kansas Air National Guard's 184th Intelligence Wing

The Guardian: The kill chain: inside the unit that tracks targets for US drone wars

In a dimly lit room at McConnell air force base in south central Kansas, analysts from a national guard intelligence reconnaissance surveillance group watch live drone surveillance video coming from war zones in the Middle East.

During combat, the analysts become part of a “kill chain” – analyzing live drone video, then communicating what they see – in instant-message chat with jet fighter pilots, operators of armed Predator and Reaper drones, and ground troops.

They carry out drone warfare while sitting thousands of miles from battlefields. They don’t fly the drones and don’t fire the missiles. They video-stalk enemy combatants, and tell warfighters what they see. The work, they say, helps kill terrorists, including from Isis.

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WNU Editor:  This is just the beginning. I can only imagine what this set-up will look like in 10, 20, or 50 years.

A Look At How Drone Intel Analysis Is Helping The U.S. Target Its Enemies

An MQ-1B Predator from the 62nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron Detachment 1 sits on a ramp, Feb. 3, 2016. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Robert Cloys)

Military.com: Strike on ISIS Drone Cell Highlights Airman's Novel Intel Methods

It all started with a small tip of intelligence.

A U.S. airman in Virginia spotted a piece of intel thousands of miles away. Ten days later, warplanes bombed 11 sites in the Middle East where American military officials say Islamic State militants manufactured deadly drones.

The operation -- detailed for the first time by Air Force officials to Military.com -- underscores a growing trend in modern warfare in which troops at their home bases are intimately involved in wars half a world away. It also highlights a new way of analyzing intelligence to find, track and kill enemies and their weapons, they say.

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WNU Editor: Air Force Lt. Gen. VeraLinn "Dash" Jamieson sums it up best when it comes to how the U.S. targets the enemy .... "analysis is the foundation that's going to drive everything".

A Look Inside The U.S. Drone War

Capt. Chris, who flies the MQ-1 Predator, talks about the role he and his team play in the fight against the Islamic State terror group. Air Force Times agreed to omit his last name and only picture him from the side in order to protect his identity. Photo Credit: Lars Schwetje/Staff

Air Force Times: Target ISIS: Inside the Predator war against the world's most ruthless terrorists

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, Southwest Asia — For Predator pilots like Capt. Jonathan, the fight against the Islamic State terror group doesn’t stop.

For more than two years, the Air Force has conducted strikes and other missions in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve and — as with other wars conducted in recent years — the MQ-1 Predator drone has been one of the U.S. military’s central weapons in the fight against the Islamic State.

Hellfire-armed remotely piloted aircraft are in the air virtually around the clock in this region, and typically there are multiple Predators in the air at any given time, providing intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, close-air support and airstrikes during their 24-hour missions.

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WNU Editor: A lot of details in this report.

The White House To Release It's Playbook For The U.S. Drone Program.

AFP Photo / US Air Force / AFP

CNN: Obama administration to release drone program 'playbook'

(CNN)The Obama administration told a federal judge on Friday it is ready to make public a so-called playbook for the U.S. drone program.

The letter filed in court in New York comes following an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit.

The letter says the the government would make redactions to protect the identities of government officials who make decisions on whether to capture a suspect terrorist or to add them to a list to be targeted for killing.

The release of the Presidential Policy Guidance would mark a major addition to the public information known about the drone program. The letter also said the government plans to release less-redacted versions of Pentagon documents describing legal standards related to terrorist groups the U.S. is at war with.

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Update #1: White House to release drone 'playbook' (The Hill)
Update #2: ACLU Suit Forces White House To Release Policy Document (OR-Politics)

WNU Editor: I am sure that when they release this "playbook", it is going to be heavily redacted. But a few details have been known for a long time .... CIA’s free reign on targeted killing: Pakistan exempted from agency’s drone ‘playbook’ (RT).

SAS Soldiers Are Using Tiny Helicopter Drones To Locate High Valued Islamic State Targets

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Daily Mail: How crack SAS team snared Jihadi John with DIY DRONES: Troops snuck deep inside Raqqa and launched 1lb helicopter to pin point British executioner before calling in air strike that wiped him out

* Jihadi John - real name Mohammed Emwazi - was 'evaporated' by airstrike in ISIS's de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria
* An SAS team tracked him down and called in the strike from just five miles outside of the terror group's stronghold
* Eight special forces soldiers 'dug in' outside Raqqa and one assembled four 'nano helicopters' with cameras fitted
* Drones were programmed to fly outside Emwazi's hideout and beamed footage to SAS HQ and US Central Command

A crack team from the SAS tracked down IS executioner Jihadi John and called in the air strike that killed him in Syria, it can be revealed today.

Until now the top-secret operation to eliminate the masked British extremist – who beheaded UK hostages Alan Henning and David Haines – was thought to have been conducted entirely from the air without any Western troops.

But The Mail on Sunday has learned that the perilous plan depended on a team of eight men from the Special Forces regiment risking their lives to penetrate deep inside the IS stronghold of Raqqa.

WNU Editor: This must have been an incredibly dangerous operations. The fact that it was successful tells me that ISIS is vulnerable to these type of operations.

U.S. Air Force Loses 2 Predator Drones In Iraq And Turkey

US Air Force lost control of two Predator drones, similar to the one pictured here on March 7, 2013, in separate incidents recently in Turkey and Iraq, a US military official said (AFP Photo/John Moore)

AFP: Two armed US Predator drones crash in Iraq, Turkey

Washington (AFP) - The US Air Force recently lost control of two armed Predator drones in separate incidents in Turkey and Iraq, a US military official said Wednesday.

The Predators were both carrying air-to-surface Hellfire missiles when they crashed, but these were safely recovered along with the aircraft.

In the first case on October 17, a Predator crew reported a "lost link and subsequent crash while the Predator was flying southeast of Baghdad," military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.

Local Iraqi police recovered the drone in the vicinity of Al-Kut. They returned the aircraft to US control and there were no injuries, Warren said.

Update #1: 2 USAF Predator Drones Crash In Turkey -- Defense News
Update #2: Two armed US Predator drones crash in Iraq, Turkey: Military -- Press TV

WNU Editor: Two in just a few days .... you have to wonder if it was more than just a mechanical malfunction.

The U.S. Wants To Deploy Drones To North Africa To Monitor The Islamic State

The Times

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Wants Drones in North Africa to Combat Islamic State in Libya

Washington seeking permission to use a base in a neighboring country

WASHINGTON—The U.S. is in talks with North African countries about positioning drones at a base on their soil to ramp up surveillance of Islamic State in Libya in what would be the most significant expansion of the campaign against the extremist group in the region.

The establishment of such a base would help eliminate what counterterrorism officials described as one of the last and most pressing intelligence “blind spots” facing U.S. and Western spy agencies. Washington and its allies are seeking to contain the expansion of Islamic State beyond Iraq and Syria, where a U.S.-led military campaign against the group is already under way.

“Right now, what we are trying to do is address some real intelligence challenges,” a senior administration official said. A base in North Africa close to Islamic State strongholds in Libya would help the U.S. “fill gaps in our understanding of what’s going on” there, the official added.

The quest for a base represents an acknowledgment that the extremist group has managed to enlarge its area of influence even while under U.S. and allied bombardment in Iraq and Syria.

More News On Reports That The U.S. Wants To Deploy Drones To North Africa To Monitor The Islamic State

U.S. considering drones in North Africa to monitor Islamic State: WSJ -- Reuters
Report: US seeks base for drones in northern Africa -- Stars and Stripes
US seeks drones base in North Africa to combat IS in Libya -- Times of Israel/AFP
Washington Looking for Drones Base in North Africa -- North African Post
US Plans to Position Drones in North Africa to Combat ISIL in Libya -- Sputnik

Drone Military Operations In The Future Will Focus On Clearing Hostile Air Defenses Before The Manned Bombers Arrive

Pierre Longeray, VICE News: Meet the Drone That Carries Out the Airstrikes Before the Airstrikes

At the French Ministry of Defense's booth in the Paris Air Show this week, the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) proudly displayed what will soon be the crown jewel of the French air force's aircraft fleet: an armed drone designed in collaboration with the UK that is expected to assist its fighter jets by 2030.

This drone or UCAV (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle) is called the "Future Combat Air System" or FCAS. Inspired by its French and British precursors — the nEUROn, developed by Dassault Aviation, which first took flight in December 2012, and the Taranis, developed by BAE Systems and first launched in August 2013 — this new project likely will catch up with the Americans, who have made significant advances in combat drone technology with their X47B.

WNU Editor: This makes sense .... air defenses need to always be destroyed before the big bombers arrive, and what better way to do it than with drones that have a unique stealth ability and are not as costly to lose as manned bombers and fighters.

U.S. Military Expands Operations In Africa With The Opening Of A Second Drone Base In Niger

The Washington Post. Craig Whitlock and Gene Thorp/The Washington Post. Published on September 1, 2014

Pentagon Set To Open Second Drone Base In Niger As It Expands Operations In Africa -- Washington Post

The Pentagon is preparing to open a drone base in one of the remotest places on Earth: an ancient caravan crossroads in the middle of the Sahara.

After months of negotiations, the government of Niger, a landlocked West African nation, has authorized the U.S. military to fly unarmed drones from the mud-walled desert city of Agadez, according to Nigerien and U.S. officials.

The previously undisclosed decision gives the Pentagon another surveillance hub — its second in Niger and third in the region — to track Islamist fighters who have destabilized parts of North and West Africa. It also advances a little-publicized U.S. strategy to tackle counterterrorism threats alongside France, the former colonial power in that part of the continent.

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My Comment: This is a continuing  response to the growth of radical extremist groups in Africa .... but what is disconcerting is that this strategy is nothing new .... and it has yet to limit the growth of these groups.

Is The CIA Drone Mission In Afghanistan - Pakistan About To End?

Reuters

Afghanistan Exit Is Seen As Peril To C.I.A. Drone Mission -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — The risk that President Obama may be forced to pull all American troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year has set off concerns inside the American intelligence agencies that they could lose their air bases used for drone strikes against Al Qaeda in Pakistan and for responding to a nuclear crisis in the region.

Until now, the debate here and in Kabul about the size and duration of an American-led allied force in Afghanistan after 2014 had focused on that country’s long-term security. But these new concerns also reflect how troop levels in Afghanistan directly affect long-term American security interests in neighboring Pakistan, according to administration, military and intelligence officials.

The concern has become serious enough that the Obama administration has organized a team of intelligence, military and policy specialists to devise alternatives to mitigate the damage if a final security deal cannot be struck with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, who has declined to enact an agreement that American officials thought was completed last year.

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My Comment: If U.S forces leave Afghanistan .... I suspect that the CIA drone program will also be terminated. And for Al Qaeda .... as far as they are concerned they will now have a safe haven free from U.S. drone strikes.

First Glimpse Inside Britain's Drone HQ

Ground control station: Experienced 'pilots' from XIII Squadron guide Reapers at 50,000ft above Helmand Province via satellite from high-security RAF Waddington, near Lincoln

RAF Pilot Unleashes Hell On Taliban... From The Comfort Of An Armchair In Lincolnshire: Mail Given First Glimpse Inside Drone HQ -- Daily Mail

* Experienced 'pilots' from XIII Squadron guide Reapers above Helmand
* They work via satellite from high-security RAF Waddington near Lincoln
* Seated in two ground control stations the size of shipping containers
* Steer drones remotely as they support British troops fighting Taliban

Sitting before a bank of flickering computer screens and controls, the RAF pilot flies a drone in the skies above Afghanistan.

But the airman is not operating the £10million Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from the warzone – or even the US.

Instead, he is 8,000 miles away in a hi-tech control hub in a remote part of East Anglia – poised to order the controversial robot to carry out airstrikes using its fearsome array of Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs.

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My Comment: It appears that the British are copying what the American drone program is doing.

U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Has Approved Plans For More Surveillance Over Drone Strikes

A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle assigned to the California Air National Guard's 163rd Reconnaissance Wing flies near the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California in this January 7, 2012 USAF handout photo obtained by Reuters February 6, 2013. Credit: Reuters/U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Effrain Lopez/Handout

Senate Panel Approves Beefed-Up Oversight Of Drone Attacks -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The Senate Intelligence Committee has quietly approved a plan to step up both public and internal government oversight of the use of armed drones to kill suspected militants overseas, including American citizens.

The committee voted in closed session earlier this week to approve legislative language that would require U.S. spy agencies to make public statistics on how many people were killed or injured in missile strikes launched from U.S.-operated drones.

The committee also approved language intended to bolster scrutiny of secret spy agency deliberations over decisions about targeting U.S. citizens or residents for lethal drone strikes overseas.

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 My Comment:  The committee voted in closed session .... which tells me that these oversights will also be held in secret and (probably) changing nothing.

The CIA Will Continue To Run America's Drone War

U.S. Air Force

Exclusive: The CIA, Not The Pentagon, Will Keep Running Obama's Drone War -- Gordon Lubold and Shane Harris, Killer Apps/Foreign Policy

In May, the White House leaked word that it would start shifting drone operations from the shadows of the CIA to the relative sunlight of the Defense Department in an effort to be more transparent about the controversial targeted killing program. But six months later, the so-called migration of those operations has stalled, and it is now unlikely to happen anytime soon, Foreign Policy has learned.

The anonymous series of announcements coincided with remarks President Obama made on counterterrorism policy at National Defense University in which he called for "transparency and debate on this issue." A classified Presidential Policy Guidance on the matter, issued at the same time, caught some in government by surprise, triggering a scramble at the Pentagon and at CIA to achieve a White House objective. The transfer was never expected to happen overnight. But it is now clear the complexity of the issue, the distinct operational and cultural differences between the Pentagon and CIA and the bureaucratic politics of it all has forced officials on all sides to recognize transferring drone operations from the Agency to the Defense Department represents, for now, an unattainable goal.

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Update: Report: CIA Likely to Continue Running Drone War -- Time

My Comment: So much for promises of transparency from the White House.

Report: U.S. Drone Strikes Came In Two Waves

Villages have dug graves for the people who were killed in the July 2012 strike

Drones Kill Rescuers In 'Double Tap', Say Activists -- Tara McKelvey, BBC News Magazine

Drones are often lauded for their supposed precision and accuracy. Sometimes, though, the machines - and their human operators - make mistakes, as two new reports from human rights organisations show.

The first round of missiles struck a tent in Zowi Sidgi, a village in North Waziristan, at dusk on 6 July 2012. A small group of miners and woodcutters had gathered there for dinner, according to Amnesty International's Mustafa Qadri.

The tent burned. Friends and family members came running to help. A moment later, there was another drone strike. Many of the people who had come to assist their friends and relatives in the tent were also killed.

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My Comment: This drone operation method reminds me of what my father once told about German bombing methods in the Second World War. After the first wave had passed .... and the rescuers were trying their best to save lives .... a second wave would then follow killing the rescuers.

U.S. Military Drone Operations Are Now Expanding Worldwide

U.S. Military Drone Surveillance Is Expanding To Hot Spots Beyond Declared Combat Zones -- Washington Post

The steel-gray U.S. Air Force Predator drone plunged from the sky, shattering on mountainous terrain near the Iraq-Turkey border. For Kurdish guerrillas hiding nearby, it was an unexpected gift from the propaganda gods.

Fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, filmed the charred wreckage on Sept. 18 and posted a video on YouTube. A narrator bragged unconvincingly that the group had shot down the drone. But for anyone who might doubt that the flying robot was really American, the video zoomed in on mangled parts stamped in English and bearing the label of the manufacturer, San Diego-based General Atomics.

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My Comment: With a proven track record in providing real time surveillance and tracking intel, it is not surprising to see many countries wanting to engage with the U.S. in obtaining these drone capabilities. What is missing is a debate in the U.S. on whether or not we should be engaged in providing such services .... after-all .... by becoming involved in providing military intelligence we are also becoming actively involved in many of the world's hot spots and conflicts .... and choosing sides while doing it.

No More Drones For The CIA

Exclusive: No More Drones For CIA -- Daniel Klaidman, Daily Beast

Three senior officials tell Daniel Klaidman that the Obama administration is poised to shift the CIA’s drone program to the Pentagon.

At a time when controversy over the Obama administration’s drone program seems to be cresting, the CIA is close to taking a major step toward getting out of the targeted killing business. Three senior U.S. officials tell The Daily Beast that the White House is poised to sign off on a plan to shift the CIA’s lethal targeting program to the Defense Department.

The move could potentially toughen the criteria for drone strikes, strengthen the program’s accountability, and increase transparency. Currently, the government maintains parallel drone programs, one housed in the CIA and the other run by the Department of Defense. The proposed plan would unify the command and control structure of targeted killings and create a uniform set of rules and procedures. The CIA would maintain a role, but the military would have operational control over targeting. Lethal missions would take place under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, which governs military operations, rather than Title 50, which sets out the legal authorities for intelligence activities and covert operations. “This is a big deal,” says one senior administration official who has been briefed on the plan. “It would be a pretty strong statement.”

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More News On The CIA Giving Up It's Drones

U.S. to Shift Drone Command -- Wall Street Journal
White House to move drone operations out of CIA, centralize at Pentagon -- FOX News
Pentagon Taking Over Drones Magnifies The CIA's Free Rein -- Business Insider
The CIA Is Losing Its Drone Privileges -- Joe Coscarelli, New York Mag
White House set to move drone program away from CIA: report -- New York Post
Obama mulls stripping CIA of drones -- RT
Report: CIA Losing Armed Drones Program To Pentagon -- Think Progress
Human rights groups: Getting CIA out of drone business is only first step -- Susan Crabtree, The Washington Times
Feinstein is worried about the CIA losing the drone program -- Passport/Foreign Policy
Going Clear: Drone critics wanted greater transparency. Careful what you wish for. -- Matthew Waxman, National Security/Foreign Policy
Does Transferring Drone Program from CIA to Pentagon Change Anything? -- Opposing View
Does it matter who runs US drone program? Pentagon could supplant CIA. -- Anna Mulrine, Christian Science Monitor

President Obama: Dick Cheney Was Worse On Drones

President Obama: I'm No Dick Cheney On Drones -- Politico

President Barack Obama’s defense to Democratic senators complaining about how little his administration has told Congress about the legal justifications for his drone policy: Dick Cheney was worse.

That’s part of what two senators in the room recounted of Obama’s response when, near the outset of his closed-door session with the Senate Democratic conference on Tuesday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) confronted the president over the administration’s refusal for two years to show congressional intelligence committees Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memos justifying the use of lethal force against American terror suspects abroad.

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My Comment: President Obama is trying to "wash his hands" from a policy that has expanded dramatically under his administration (see the above graph) .... but with the media being as compliant as they have been for the past 5 years .... he may get away with it.