Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know that the US and its allies have been making drone attacks all over parts of the Middle East and Africa in recent years. Last week, the US Air Force announced that it launched a satellite that will help to “improve communications” with their drones. When I heard this, I wondered exactly what they meant by “improve communications,” but little more than basic information was provided about the improvements.
The question I’d like to ask is whether this communication improvement will help to reduce the number of deaths of innocent people associated with US drone attacks–probably not. My guess is that the new satellite will help them to carry out more attacks, but will do absolutely nothing about the human collateral damage these attacks leave behind. In case you don’t know what a drone is, check out the video below where Heit and I discussed drone on an episode of The Axiom Amnesia Theory.
Air Force launches military satellite into space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Air Force has sent into space a satellite that is expected to improve communications with military drones in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Officials say a Delta 4 rocket carried the WGS 4 satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:38 p.m. Thursday.
It’s the fourth in a series of military satellites that have been put into place since 2007. The next one is expected to be ready to launch next year.
WGS stands for Wideband Global SATCOM. The satellites are replacing aging Defense Satellite Communications System spacecraft and have 10 times the speed and capacity of the older satellites. Source: Yahoo! News
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