The Decline of the Drone
The technology that defined U.S. counterterror wars is beginning to wane in importance as the Pentagon looks to threats posed by Russia and China.By Paul D. Shinkman Senior National Security WriterMarch 29, 2019, at 6:00 a.m.
U.S. News & World Report
An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft is prepared for a training mission at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada on November 17, 2015.(Isaac Brekken/Getty Images)
The secretive and lethal technology that has defined U.S. counterterror operations for the last decade – and remains the subject of global controversy – appears to be diminishing in importance as America prepares for the next era of combat.
New Pentagon documents show the military plans to invest next year in the lowest number of new drones in more than a decade. Though the complexity of Defense Department budgets makes it difficult to isolate a single reason for the shift, budget analysts agree the Trump administration's stated intention of withdrawing from costly and deadly Middle East wars and instead focus on a resurging China and Russia is driving a focus on other technologies.
https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2019-03-29/us-military-turns-away-from-drones
