Due largely to an unexplained increase in mishaps involving its most advanced “hunter-killer” drone, the US Air Force reported a record number of crashes involving unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) in 2015, BBC News and the Washington Post have revealed.
Statistics published by the two media outlets indicated that at least 20 large drones had either been destroyed or sustained at least $2 million in damages last year, led by a number of sudden and catastrophic electrical failures that have caused several of the 2.5-ton, $14 million Reaper drones to lose power and fall from the sky.
The problem has been traced back to a faulty starter-generator, the Post said, but experts have yet to discern exactly why this component fails or how the issue can be permanently fixed. Officials at the Pentagon have not disclosed the extent of the problem, not have they revealed details about most of the crashes, according to the newspaper’s report.
The Reaper is used for surveillance and for airstrikes not only by the US, but by its allies in the UK as well, during counterterrorism operations involving the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, BBC News said.
Number of qualified drone on the decline, report indicates
Documents disclosing the UAV crashes, obtained by the Post through a Freedom of Information Act request, showed that 10 Reapers were badly damaged or destroyed in last year, at least twice as many as the previous year. The drone’s mishap rate (the number of major crashes per 100,000 hours flown) was also at least twice what it was in 2014.
Furthermore, the Reaper’s predecessor, the Predator, was found to be involved in 10 accidents in 2015 – the most since 2011, when American troops were engaged in both Iraq and Afghanistan – and less than half of the accidents involving both types of drones were reported to the public, the Post said. Five incidents were only confirmed after initial reports were released.
The military records indicate that only one drone was downed by hostile forces: a Predator that was hit by Syrian air defenses near Latakia on March 17. Nineteen of the 20 incidents occurred overseas, including six crashed in Afghanistan, four near a US instillation in Djibouti and three in Iraq. Crashes were also reported in Kuwait, Turkey, Syria and Libya, the Post added, and two of the incidents took place in countries that were not identified by the USAF.
The documents also showed that the USAF had to reduce the number of drone combat missions by 8 percent due to a shortage of pilots qualified to fly the remote-controlled vehicles. In fact, the Air Force is now reportedly offering drone pilots retention bonuses of up to $125,000 to keep them on board and to meet what one top military official called “a virtually insatiable appetite” for airborne surveillance data among commanding officers.
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
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