Drone Wars UK provides good survey of booming drone business not seen inside United States. "The US has two separate ‘squadron’ of armed drones – one run by the US Air Force and one run by the CIA. Using drones, the USAF Air Force has increased the number of combat air patrols it can fly by 600 percent over the past six years; indeed at any time there are at least 36 Ameri- can armed UAVS over Afghanistan and Iraq. It plans to increase this number to 50 by 2011. CIA Director Leon Panetta has recently said that drones are 'the only game in town',” reveals article. A Reaper costs 50 million-plus, according to video, but still well below cost of a F-35 at an estimated 150 million.
Manufacturers seeking new markets for drones, represent bleak prospect for US citizens. The bottom line reported in article, "Military drone manufacturers are looking for civilian uses for remote sensing drones to expand their markets and this includes the use of drones for domestic surveillance. Drones will no doubt make possible the dramatic expansion of the surveillance state. With the convergence of other technologies it may even make possible machine recognition of faces, behaviours, and the monitoring of individual conversations. The sky, so to speak, is the limit."
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