Revealed: 64 Drone Bases on American Soil

Revealed: 64 Drone Bases on American Soil

Spencer Akerman: Presence and Purpose of Drones Sees Domestic Drift

Published on Thursday, June 14, 2012 by The Rachel Maddow Show

http://http://www.commondreams.org/video/2012/06/14-0

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai for the Danger Room reports:

We like to think of the drone war as something far away, fought in the deserts of Yemen or the mountains of Afghanistan. But we now know it's closer than we thought. There are 64 drone bases on American soil. That includes 12 locations housing Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, which can be armed.
Public Intelligence, a non-profit that advocates for free access to information, released a map of military UAV activities in the United States on Tuesday. Assembled from military sources — especially this little-known June 2011 Air Force presentation (.pdf) – it is arguably the most comprehensive map so far of the spread of the Pentagon's unmanned fleet. What exact missions are performed at those locations, however, is not clear. Some bases might be used as remote cockpits to control the robotic aircraft overseas, some for drone pilot training. Others may also serve as imagery analysis depots.