CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that General Atomics began flying new drone missions for the Defense Department in April. The contracted mission began in April. The flights began in August.

The U.S. military wants to boost its drone presence by 50 percent in four years, and it's hiring help. General Atomics, maker of the ubiquitous Predator and Reaper drones, began flying intelligence missions for the Defense Department this month.

It’s not unprecedented for the military to hire drone builders to fly them. Boeing pilots its small, unarmed ScanEagle drone, which has a ceiling of 3,500 feet and a top speed under 250 mph, for the Pentagon. But the Predator is far more capable, typically flies at 10,000-feet and, of course, has an armed variant.

Officials with General Atomics told Defense One that the company began flying surveillance missions for the Pentagon, although they could not disclose the location or mission details.

Currently, Air Force crews fly 60 Predator and Reaper combat air patrols, where one CAP means keeping one aircraft in the air around the clock. The Pentagon wants to push that towards 90 by 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. With Air Force drone crews worn out by wartime operations, military leaders are turning to the Army, U.S. Special Operations Command — and the defense industry.

“Government contractors would be hired to fly older Predator drones on as many as 10 flights a day, none of them strike missions,” wrote WSJ reporter Gordon Lubold.

Some see this as a first step toward allowing civilian contractors firing weapons on behalf of the military, although the Pentagon is not there yet and neither is General Atomics.

Contractors would not have permission to launch Hellfire missiles or other weapons and they wouldn’t be flying armed drones. “I would have reservations personally,” said Chris Pehrson, director of strategic development for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. “Policy-wise, I don’t see that happening. There’s always a government authority in a targeting chain like that. Contractors just don’t do that.”