Surprise!!!!! US combat drones to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014

[dixiegrrrrl]

Or, When getting out of Afghanistan means not really getting out of Afghanistan......

Though the US military continues its drawdown from Afghanistan, long after combat troops are gone by the end of the 2014, one factor that will remain the same is the presence of American combat drones.

Air Force Major General H.D. Polumbo, the commander of the joint US-NATO air war over Afghanistan, confirmed to reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that armed drones will still fly over Afghanistan, along with some fixed-wing fighters and bombers.

“They can collect intelligence, but they also are armed. And they’re armed to be able to provide force protection to our coalition forces and then when our coalition ground force commanders, when they deem it appropriate, they can control that air-delivered munition capability from the RPAs to be put in support of the Afghans,” according to Maj. Gen. Polumbo.

http://rt.com/news/us-drones-afghanistan-2014-360/

and guess what else?????????

UK starts controlling drones in Afghanistan from British soil

RAF's unmanned Reaper aircraft had been operated from Creech airforce base in Nevada, but missions from Lincolnshire began this week.
Remotely controlled armed drones used to target insurgents in Afghanistan have been operated from the UK for the first time, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

Missions of the missile-carrying Reaper aircraft began from a newly built headquarters at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire earlier this week – five years after the MoD bought the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to monitor and attack the Taliban.

Since then the UK has been controlling the RAF's five Reaper aircraft from Creech airforce base in Nevada because the British military did not have the capability to fly them from here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/25/uk-controlling-drones-afghanistan-britain