WHAT DRONES? Air Force Stops Reporting Drone Strikes in Afghanistan
AF removes RPA airstrike number from summary
By Brian Everstine and Aaron Mehta - Staff writers
Posted : Friday Mar 8, 2013 12:34:50 EST
As scrutiny and debate over the use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) by the American military increased last month, the Air Force reversed a policy of sharing the number of airstrikes launched from RPAs in Afghanistan and quietly scrubbed those statistics from previous releases kept on their website.
Last October, Air Force Central Command started tallying weapons releases from RPAs, broken down into monthly updates. At the time, AFCENT spokeswoman Capt. Kim Bender said the numbers would be put out every month as part of a service effort to “provide more detailed information on RPA ops in Afghanistan.”
The Air Force maintained that policy for the statistics reports for November, December and January. But the February numbers, released March 7, contained empty space where the box of RPA statistics had previously been.
Additionally, monthly reports hosted on the Air Force website have had the RPA data removed — and recently.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2013/03/air-force-drone-airstrike-summary-030813/
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