The US has at least 60 drone bases

drone bases

The article covers ground control stations at known US bases, some known foreign bases, countries suspected to be hosting bases, and Forward Operating Bases (FOB).

Given that a ground control station can be just about anywhere, I'm sure there are more. It would not surprise me if the General Atomics facilities in the Mojave control assets in theater.

a reply to: gariac

Well these drones dont seem to be putting to much of a dent regarding ISIS recent activities. Its not like this new type of warfare is going to go away. To be quite frank i imagine we will begin to see far more of these facility's spring up around the world, and they wont just be American.

A little while ago, when i was in Afghanistan, a particular FOB I was located in for a month was home to a CIA operated drone facility. It was the operating base for "The Beast Of Kandahar", though we were considerably far from Kandahar.

Where we were let me know what the real mission was...And insurgents wasn't it.

a reply to: projectvxn

The RQ-170 isn't the best platform for insurgent hunting, which is why it was doing that mission instead.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Indeed.

On a side note, the CIA guys were very nice to our detachment.

Gave us a bunch of stuff to BBQ.

Ground control stations can be anywhere. The more interesting facility is where they launch and recover. The airbase needs to be in friendly country because the drones can be monitored, and the route to enemy territory once outside the friendly country needs to be over land with no air defenses (ground or air).

Yemen and Pakistan complain about drone strikes, but also host bases. ;-)

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: projectvxn

The RQ-170 isn't the best platform for insurgent hunting, which is why it was doing that mission instead.

yeah its not really a secret where they were and what they were doing. lol

a reply to: boomer135



WHAT WAS THE MISSION !!!! ??

a reply to: IntastellaBurst

The mission was surveillance. Long term surveillance hence the use of stealth assets.

a reply to: projectvxn


Ooohhhh ok,

I was thinking poppy field security

originally posted by: IntastellaBurst
a reply to: boomer135



WHAT WAS THE MISSION !!!! ??

think of it this way. Where did one get brought down? lol

originally posted by: IntastellaBurst
a reply to: projectvxn


Ooohhhh ok,

I was thinking poppy field security

I think its hilarious that this is all anyone ever brings up about Afghanistan anymore. Like that's all anyone ever did out there.

originally posted by: projectvxn

originally posted by: IntastellaBurst
a reply to: projectvxn


Ooohhhh ok,

I was thinking poppy field security

I think its hilarious that this is all anyone ever brings up about Afghanistan anymore. Like that's all anyone ever did out there.

.....not the only thing.

But one of the most important, that people need to know about.

a reply to: IntastellaBurst

I promise it wasn't that important.

If it had been my unit would have been tasked to it.

originally posted by: projectvxn

originally posted by: IntastellaBurst
a reply to: projectvxn


Ooohhhh ok,

I was thinking poppy field security

I think its hilarious that this is all anyone ever brings up about Afghanistan anymore. Like that's all anyone ever did out there.

What else was there? Afghanistan opium income was nearly 50% of its GDP. Here's a little backround info thats very true but has led to some not so well known conspiracy theories...

Back in 1994 when the Taliban basically took full control of the country, the CIA allegedly funneled money through Pakistan via the ISI to Karzai to help with the taliban takeover. All this is fact except obviously the CIA denies everything they do. From that point until the year 2000, opium production in Afghanistan hovered between 3000 and 4700 hundred tons a year. In fact, since 1979 opium production increased over 15 fold until the year 2000.

Then, something totally unexpected happened and it shocked the world. At the end of 2000, the taliban banned production of opium in the regions they controlled. Because of this, opium production in afghanistan decreased 94% to just 185 tons in the year of 2001. Well guess what else happened at the end of 2001...

Now im not saying that we went into afghanistan because we wanted to increase the opium production for CIA purposes or whatever you want to believe, but it was a nice little side dish to the war. And how do we know that we wanted it increased? Well data of course. After we invaded afghanistan, within a year opium production shot back up to 3400 tons. Its no coincidence.

Now here's the sad (sort of) part. They estimate that afghanistan opium by itself, not any other opium produced in the world, is valued at a little over 51.4 Billion dollars a year. This figure indicates the wholesale price of heroin when its on the street level, after being cut, with a 70% purity rating (and thats very conservative). Now the sad part is what the farmers and local taliban traffickers actually get paid for it. All these figures are based off of 3600 tons of opium. The local farmers who actually grow the poppies only make around a billion dollars for their work. The local traffickers in afghanistan, including the taliban, generate about 1.3 billion dollars for their efforts. So only 2.3 billion dollars out of over 50 billion goes to the people making the drug and putting it to market.

So back to my first point, if opium is around 50% of their GDP, what else do they do?

All data references come from a very good read, albiet over 200 pages called the Opium Economy in Afghanistan, released by the United Nations. You can download it here: Link


MODS: Please dont delete this for drug references. Its strickly for the purpose of seeing the war in afghanistan from a different perspective.

originally posted by: gariac
drone bases

The article covers ground control stations at known US bases, some known foreign bases, countries suspected to be hosting bases, and Forward Operating Bases (FOB).

Given that a ground control station can be just about anywhere, I'm sure there are more. It would not surprise me if the General Atomics facilities in the Mojave control assets in theater.

The article takes some facts and creates assumptions that are really not correct, but they seem correct to most because of a few real facts embedded.

When they say 60 bases what do they mean? 60 predator bases, 60 bases with drone ISR support, 60 bases with any kind of ISR support...

originally posted by: boomer135
So back to my first point, if opium is around 50% of their GDP, what else do they do?

So that opium goes to Europe and Russia, so who is wagging the dog here?

originally posted by: boomer135

originally posted by: IntastellaBurst
a reply to: boomer135



WHAT WAS THE MISSION !!!! ??

think of it this way. Where did one get brought down? lol

The one that had an engine failure?

originally posted by: projectvxn
A little while ago, when i was in Afghanistan, a particular FOB I was located in for a month was home to a CIA operated drone facility. It was the operating base for "The Beast Of Kandahar", though we were considerably far from Kandahar.

Where we were let me know what the real mission was...And insurgents wasn't it.

I been to quite a few FOBs and most are small with just helo support. Even the ones with runway support was dirt for maybe C-130s or V-22s, not really something a pred or RQ can operate from.

a reply to: boomer135


Well said,

Thanks for straightening the kid out.