Friday, July 11, 2014

Innocent-sounding Enough? Drone Testing Ongoing in Utah



According to the Department of Defense Report to Congress on Future Unmanned Aircraft Systems Training, Operations, and Sustainability (April 2012), Utah has two locations that have been designated as potential basing locations for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) [i.e. drones] (p. 8 ff.).

The table below gives information on the types of drones that are proposed for basing at each location.

BASE Predator/Reaper type Shadow/Raven type Other
Camp Williams
RQ-11B, RQ-7B
Dugway MQ-1C, MQ-5 RQ-7B

An article on Dugway in 2009 summed up the way that drones have become the wave of the future for the military: ""What we have seen is when you look at the youth of today, they're already so familiar with video games that transitioning to these types of things is just right up their alley. So, it just works great," says Timothy Owings, deputy project manager for the Army's Unmanned Aircraft Systems program." (See Dugway Proving Ground dedicates new drone facility)

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