The Pentagon is asking for 3 times as many drones for 2019

C4ISRNET: The Pentagon’s enthusiasm for drones has never been greater.

A new report published today by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard University found that in the President’s new budget request, the Department of Defense is asking for three times as many uncrewed vehicles for 2019 as it did in 2018.

That’s 3,447 new drones to be exact, but don’t expect the skies to go dark with Reapers anytime soon. Despite the numbers requested, the drone budget itself is up by only 26 percent. The Pentagon isn’t just buying more drones, it’s acquiring a whole range of new systems, for everything from undersea surveillance to cheap scouting quadcopters to lasers designed to shoot down the cheap quadcopters of adversaries. The drone century is only just beginning.

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