FollowUp 1: Lost Drones

Spy drones are not necessarily small and are becoming quite varied in their capabilities.

Predator C Avenger Spy Drone

The title of the Stars and Stripes article says a lot:  Air Force buys an Avenger, its biggest and fastest armed drone.

The Avenger, which cost the military $15 million, is the latest version of the Predator drones made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., a San Diego-area company that also builds the robotic MQ-9 Reapers for the Air Force and CIA.

The new radar-evading aircraft, also known as the Predator C, is General Atomics' third version of these drones. The Air Force picked up only one of them, strictly for testing purposes.

To be fair, $15 million is a pittance compared with modern manned aircraft like the F-22 Raptor which costs roughly ten times as much.  If the only concerns are cost and safety of pilots, we should be buying a lot more drones.

I asked some questions previously and still have no good answers:  Have we really become the world's police service?  Is that part of our designation now in the United Nations or in NATO?  Is this Constitutional?  Lots of questions with no clear answers.

14 December 2011, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.

4 January 2012, FollowUp 2.
12 June 2012, FollowUp 3.
1 July 2012, FollowUp 4.