SurveillanceState Department expands use of drones in Iraq

With the U.S. military out of Iraq, the State Department has taken to operating a small fleet of unarmed surveillance drones to protect American personnel, which has resulted in sharp criticism from the Iraqi government who say the unmanned craft are an insult to Iraqi sovereignty.

In the past U.S. troops operated blimps and other aerial surveillance craft to provide critical intelligence to convoys regarding road blocks and hazards in dangerous situations, but now that the military has left the State Department has begun flying its own drones.

According to State Department documents, the program is designed“to provide real-time surveillance of fixed installations, proposed movement routes and movement operations,” for American convoys and to “[improve] security in high-threat or potentially high-threat environments.”’

The department has roughly two dozen drones in its Iraqi fleet, but many are used for spare parts. The drones are unarmed and much smaller than their military counterparts with wing spans as short as eighteen inches, compared to the fifty-five foot wingspan Predators.

In anticipation of the military’s eventual withdrawal, the State Department began its drone program last year and now hopes to ramp up its operations, but doing so will require approval from the Iraqi government, which appears unlikely.

Iraqi leaders have become increasingly assertive and often denounce the United States to rally supporters.

Adnan al-Asadi, Iraq’s acting minister of interior, has publicly opposed the drone program.

“Our sky is our sky, not the U.S.A.’s sky,” he said.

In spite of the political hurdles, the State Department has plans to begin accepting bids to manage drone operations above Iraq for the next five years. In addition the Department has told contractors that it may even expand its drone program to other high-risk countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan when U.S. troops withdraw from the region in the coming years.

So far more than a dozen companies have expressed interest in the contract, but some analysts believe handling drone operations is too complex and beyond the range of the State Department’s core competencies.

“The State Department needs to get through its head that it is not an agency adept at running military-style operations,” said Peter W. Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of “Wired for War.”