*****BREAKING*****US KILLS AL QAEDA LEADER AL-ZAWAHRI IN DRONE STRIKE IN AFGHANISTAN

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https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2021-10/understanding-drones

The cost per flight hour varies by type of drone, but the larger armed systems such as the Global Hawk cost up to $18,591 per hour.

The total costs of the U.S. drone program are difficult to assess. Funding is spread across many different legislative line items and is often not clearly marked. Expert estimates differ on the annual cost of the program. According to the Bard College Center for the Study of the Drone, the Department of Defense requested approximately $9.39 billion for drones and associated technologies in the fiscal year 2019 budget. The Stimson Center assessed the administration’s request at $3.4 billion for drone procurement, research, development, testing, and evaluation.

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In post-9/11 war zones, drones have been used to target members of non-state organized armed groups that the U.S. has been engaged in armed conflict with, such as ISIS in Iraq and Syria and al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But beyond the context of armed conflict, the U.S. government uses drones to target people on a “kill list” who the administration considers to be “high-value” targets and who may or may not be in an active war zone. Drones are also used to conduct “signature strikes” based on vaguely defined, suspicious patterns of an individual’s behavior. Upon closer inspection, the rationale often crumbles. For example, a January 2018 strike in Yemen appears to have mistakenly targeted a 70-year-old farmer and his younger relative.

U.S. drone surveillance footage has also misidentified civilians as terrorist targets. An August 2021 strike in Afghanistan mistakenly targeted an innocent man and his nine family members, including seven children.