The number of UAVs—ah, that’s now UASes—in use in Southwest Asia just keeps growing. We reported some 750 in July; now Dyke Weatherington, DOD’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Planning Task Force deputy director, says there are “well over” 1,000 small, unmanned systems in use in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was briefing reporters Wednesday about the Pentagon’s new Unmanned Aerial Systems Roadmap.
The Pentagon is significantly bolstering airpower near Venezuela, dispatching the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to Latin America, it said in an Oct. 24 statement. The announcement came just hours after U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers and other U.S. assets flew near the Venezuelan coast on Oct. 23.
