The New Yorker last week had an interesting article on this and also described the drone "pilots" as residing in the US. However, there's something a little unclear here: Pure speed-of-light limitations would add, you'd think, unacceptable latency (a couple of seconds?). Does this mean there's some kind of automatic lock-on that commits the drone to fire upon targets, or is there some kind of propaganda-typre reason why the gubmint would go out of it's way to make it appear that the operators are in the US? -TD
Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:58:21 -0400 To: cypherpunks@al-qaeda.net From: jya@pipeline.com Subject: Re: attack of the drones
We would appreciate information the sites the Air Force is using for remote controls of the drones in AFPAK.
As noted earlier, there are reports that CIA built "quonset huts" at its HQ in Langley to remotely control its killers. These huts, actually quick-built rectangular structures, can be seen on Bing.com adjacent to the vaulted dining rooms.
Drone pilots -- AF, Customs, CIA, whoever -- are trained at Cheech Air Force Base, NV, a small base north of Beale AFB, but it has not been reported that long-range remote control is being done from Cheech, by the AF or anyone else. But could be.
We understood the AF was contolling closer to the targets.
For long-range, we saw AF photos today of:
"The U.S. Navy's first operational Global Hawk flying from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., to an airbase in Southwest Asia."
Locations of remote control were not described.
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