Battleland

Not So Unmanned After All…

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Air Force photo / Tech. Sgt. Erik Gudmundson

An MQ-1 Predator drone.

On Tuesday, an MQ-1 Predator drone was hanging out over the Persian Gulf, eyeballing items of interest in Iran.

As the Pentagon detailed it Thursday:

On March 12, an unarmed, unmanned, MQ-1 U.S. military aircraft conducting a routine classified surveillance flight over international waters in the Arabian Gulf was approached by an Iranian F-4 aircraft…The MQ-1 was escorted by two U.S. military aircraft. All U.S. aircraft remained over international waters at all times. The Iranian aircraft departed after a verbal warning.

Over at the Brookings Institution, drone-meister Peter W. Singer aptly summed up this strange twist:

“Are the fighter pilots now escorting our drones over the Persian Gulf excited by the potential action,” he tweeted, “or saddened by the deep irony?”

The action made clear that current U.S. drones, which have been picking off alleged enemies left and right since 9/11 in unchallenged airspace, have no defenses of their own to thwart an enemy attack, and depend on the kindness of…nearby humans…to conduct missions in even semi-hostile airspace.