Air Forces Central announced the crash of an MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted vehicle in southern Afghanistan about 1 a.m. local time Jan. 15, saying it was not due to hostile fire. There were also no reports of civilian injuries or damage to civilian property.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.