Pentagon Plans to Ramp up Drone Flights by 2019

Ever since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan started to wind down, the American public has gained a revulsion towards sending troops to combat zones overseas. Granted, public support for a ground invasion against Isis or Syria has teetered back and forth in recent years, but gone are the days when a US president could easily drum up support for a “Gulf War” style invasion. This means that when the Pentagon wants to go to war, all they can do is throw more drones at the problem.

So it wasn’t surprising when the Pentagon announced this week that they are planning a dramatic increase in the number of drone flights across the planet. Over the next 4 years, they want daily flights to increase by 50%. This will include both surveillance and combat missions, which will be expanded across the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the South China Sea. DoD spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told the press that “We’ve seen a steady signal from all our geographic combatant commanders to have more of this capability.”

There is only one problem with their plan though, and no amount of money can solve it. Currently, drone operators and staff are leaving this field in droves, due to stress, exhaustion, and PTSD. This has forced the military to put their drone instructors back on the job, which degrades their ability to train more recruits, thus hurting their staffing levels even more. Basically, the drone field is in a death spiral, and if the Pentagon thinks that they can increase their operations, they have another thing coming.