The Air Force has hired civilian defense contractors to fly MQ-9 Reaper drones to help track suspected militants and other targets in global hot spots, a previously undisclosed expansion in the privatization of once-exclusively military functions.

For the first time, civilian pilots and crews now operate what the Air Force calls “combat air patrols,” daily round-the-clock flights above areas of military operations to provide video and collect other sensitive intelligence.

Contractors control two Reaper patrols a day, but the Air Force plans to expand that to 10 a day by 2019. Each patrol involves up to four drones.

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Civilians are not allowed to pinpoint targets with lasers or fire missiles. They operate only Reapers that provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, known as ISR, said Air Force Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command.

“There are limitations on it,” he said. The contractors “are not combatants.”

1 / 67 Iraqi Shiite fighters patrol around the town of Khalis, in Iraq’s Diyala province, after government forces retook the area from the Islamic State group’s control. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP/Getty Images) 2 / 67 A Yazidi fighter protects the Sharaf al-Deen temple shrine, one of the holiest for the Yazidis, a religious minority whom the Islamic State group considers heretics deserving to die, in Sinjar, northern Iraq. (Seivan Selim / Associated Press) 3 / 67 A Free Syrian Army fighter from Shams al-Shamal heads to the front line in Kobani, Syria. Kurdish fighters in Syria have ambitions to become the chief force fighting Islamic State extremists in the country - building on their victory in Kobani to ally with moderate rebels and push the jihadis ever farther. (Jake Simkin / Associated Press) 4 / 67 Shiite volunteers receive martial arts training at a military base in Najaf, southern Iraq. Shiite volunteers have been assisting the Iraqi army as it battles fighters from the group calling itself the Islamic State. (Khider Abbas / EPA) 5 / 67 A Syrian Kurdish sniper looks at the rubble in the Syrian city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani. (Associated Press) 6 / 67 The Mueller family’s confirmation of Kayla’s death included letters she wrote to her family during her captivity. (Associated Press) 7 / 67 A photo released by WAM, the state news agency of the United Arab Emirates, shows Emirati pilots at an air base in Jordan on Tuesday. (Associated Press) 8 / 67 An image posted online on June 30 by the Raqqa Media Center of Islamic State is said to show fighters from the group parading in Raqqa, their headquarters in north Syria. (Associated Press) 9 / 67 Iraqi Shiite fighters celebrate on February 2, 2015 in al-Mansuriya, in Iraq’s Diyala province, after government forces retook the area from Islamic State group’s control. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP/Getty Images) 10 / 67 Peshmerga fighters take aim at Islamic State militants near Mosul, Iraq last month. (Anadolu Agency / Getty Images) 11 / 67 A Jordanian child holds a poster of pilot Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh, who was captured by Islamic State militants in Syria and has reportedly been killed. (Nasser Nasser / Associated Press) 12 / 67 A Syrian Kurdish sniper sits on rubble in the city of Kobani. Last week, aided by U.S. airstrikes, the Kurds drove Islamic State extremists out of the city, which suffered tremendous damage. (Associated Press) 13 / 67 Junko Ishido, mother of Kenji Goto, a Japanese hostage held by Islamic State militants, appears at a Tokyo news conference to appeal to Japan’s prime minister to intervene on her son’s behalf. (Shizuo Kambayashi / Associated Press ) 14 / 67 A video purportedly released by Islamic State on Jan. 20 shows Japanese hostages Kenji Goto, left, and Haruna Yukawa with a militant at an undisclosed location. (AFP/Getty Images) 15 / 67 A man comforts the wife of captive Jordanian pilot Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh during a protest in Amman, Jordan, on Wednesday. (Raad Adayleh / Associated Press) 16 / 67 A screengrab from a video shows Islamic State hostage John Cantlie. In the video the British photojournalist gives a stylized media tour of the embattled northern Iraqi city of Mosul. (SITE Intelligence Group) 17 / 67 Japanese hostage Kenji Goto holds what appears to be a photo of Jordanian pilot Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh in a YouTube video projected on a big screen TV on Wednesday. The Islamic State hostage has reportedly been beheaded by his captors. (Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press) 18 / 67 Peshmerga Gen. Mansour Barzani near Mosul on Jan. 21. (Anadolu Agency) 19 / 67 A picture of a slain fighter with the People’s Protection Units is shown during a celebration the Kurdish victory in Kobani, Syria. (Ilyas Akengin / AFP/Getty Images) 20 / 67 Kurdish fighters take up positions on Nov. 1, 2014, in an attempt to lure Islamic State militants to reveal their location in Kobani, Syria. (Jake Simkin / Associated Press) 21 / 67 Iraqi municipal workers remove debris from the scene of a car bombing in central Baghdad on Nov. 9, one of a string of attacks targeting mainly Shiite areas of the capital that has been linked to ongoing fighting between the government and Islamic State militants. (Ali Abbas / EPA) 22 / 67 A man uses binoculars to watch fighting in the Syrian town of Kobani from a hilltop on the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov. 8. (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press) 23 / 67 A mourner flashes a victory sign at the funeral of 19-year-old Syrian Kurdish fighter Perwin Mustafa Dihap, who died Nov. 7 of injuries sustained in fighting with Islamic State militants in her home town of Kobani. (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press) 24 / 67 Shiite Muslim pro-government forces drive near the Iraqi town of Jurf al-Sakhr on Oct. 30, after retaking the area from Islamic State militants (Haidar Hamdani / AFP/Getty Images) 25 / 67 People cheer a convoy of Iraqi Kurdish troops as they arrive in Mardin, Turkey, en route to Syria Oct. 29. (Associated Press) 26 / 67 An explosion follows an airstrike in the Syrian town of Kobani on Oct. 28. (Kutluhan Cucel / Getty Images) 27 / 67 Ethnic Kurds in Turkey greet convoys of fighters from Iraq at the Habur border crossing on Oct. 29. The fighters were on their way to join militias defending the Syrian border town of Kobani from the Islamic State group. (Ilyas Akengin / AFP/Getty Images) 28 / 67 An Iraqi Kurdish fighter flashes a victory sign as a convoy arrives at the Habur crossing into Turkey on Oct. 29. The heavily-armed fighters were on their way to join militias defending the Syrian border town of Kobani from Islamic State militants. (Ilyas Akengin / AFP/Getty Images) 29 / 67 Mourners carry the coffin of a Kurdish fighter killed in the battle with Islamic State militants in Kobani, Syria, during a funeral Oct. 21 in Suruc, Turkey, just across the border. (Gokhan Sahin / Getty Images) 30 / 67 Islamic State militants patrol Oct. 23 near a flag they planted in Syria, just across the Turkish border. (Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images) 31 / 67 Kurds in Suruc, Turkey, mourn Oct. 23 at the funerals for three Kurdish fighters who died in Kobani, Syria. (Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images) 32 / 67 A man watches the Syrian town of Kobani through a sniper rifle sight near the Mursitpinar border crossing in Turkey. (Gokhan Sahin / Getty Images) 33 / 67 An explosion from an airstrike rocks a Syrian hill near Kobani on Oct. 23. (Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images) 34 / 67 A U.S.-led coalition aircraft flies over Kobani, Syria. (Gokhan Sahin / Getty Images) 35 / 67 An explosion rocks the Syrian city of Kobani during a reported suicide car bombing by the militant group Islamic State. (Gokhan Sahin / Getty Images) 36 / 67 Tanks from the Turkish armed forces are dispatched to the border with Syria as clashes intensify between ethnic Kurdish fighters and Islamic State militants on Sept. 29. (Carsten Koall / Getty Images) 37 / 67 Two U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle jets fly over northern Iraq after conducting airstrikes in neighboring Syria. (Matthew Bruch / U.S. Air Force) 38 / 67 An antiwar protester holds a placard outside the British Parliament, where lawmakers approved plans to join U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq on Sept. 26. (Justin Tallis / AFP/Getty Images) 39 / 67 Turkish and Syrian Kurds try to tear down a border fence during protests against the extremist group Islamic State on Sept. 16. Refugees fleeing the militants have flooded into Turkey from Syria. (Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images) 40 / 67 Kurdish protestors clash with Turkish security forces at the border with Syria during a protest against Islamic State militants on Sept. 26. (Sedat Suna / European Pressphoto Agency) 41 / 67 Shiite Muslim volunteers from the Iraqi city of Tal Afar train at a military camp in Karbala on Sept. 25. (Mohammed Sawaf / AFP/ Getty Images) 42 / 67 Syrians check a damaged house, reportedly hit by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian in the western Aleppo province on Sept. 23. (Sami Ali / AFP/Getty Images) 43 / 67 This still image made from video released by the U.S. Central Command shows a structure in Tall Al Qitar, Syria, moments after a U.S. airstrike. (Associated Press) 44 / 67 A propaganda video posted on an Islamic State site is said to show recruits marching in an unknown location. ( AFP /Getty Images) 45 / 67 A video posted on an Islamic State site is said to show recruits training at an unknown location. (AFP /Getty Images) 46 / 67 A sandstorm hits the Yumurtalik crossing on Sept. 24 as Syrian Kurdish refugees enter Turkey near Suruc. Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds have poured into Turkey,fleeing the Islamic State group. (Getty Images) 47 / 67 A Syrian refugee child waits as Turkish soldiers guard the Turkish border near Sanliurfa. Turkey has seen an influx of Syrian refugees since the start of Syria’s civil war three years ago. (Sedat Suna / European Pressphoto Agency) 48 / 67 In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, a F/A-18F Super Hornet lands aboard the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf on Sept. 23 after conducting strike missions against Islamic State targets in Syria. (Brian Stephens / U.S. Navy) 49 / 67 Syrians check the rubble of a house damaged by coalition airstrikes in the village of Kfar Derian, a base for the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, a rival of the Islamic State group, in northern Syria. (Associated Press) 50 / 67 Syrian children hold up debris from a damaged house, reportedly hit by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian in the western Aleppo province. (Sami Ali / AFP/Getty Images) 51 / 67 Lt. Gen. William C. Mayville Jr., director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks about airstrikes in Syria during a briefing at the Pentagon. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images) 52 / 67 Syrians check structures damaged by coalition airstrikes in the village of Kfar Derian in northern Syria. (Associated Press) 53 / 67 President Obama, accompanied by Secretary of State John F. Kerry, national security advisor Susan Rice, right, and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, meets with the representatives of Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Iraq, in New York. Obama met with the five Arab nations that participated in strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) 54 / 67 U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting Islamic State positions in Syria are launched from the guided-missile cruiser Philippine Sea in the Arabian Gulf. (Eric Garst / U.S. Navy) 55 / 67 An F/A-18C Hornet prepares to launch from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush during a U.S. attack on Islamic State militants in Syria on Sept. 23. (Robert Burck / U.S. Navy) 56 / 67 The guided-missile destroyer Arleigh Burke launches Tomahawk cruise missiles in the Arabian Gulf on Sept. 23. (U.S. Navy) 57 / 67 Demonstrators chant pro-Islamic State slogans and carry the group’s flags while marching in front of provincial government headquarters in Mosul, Iraq, in June. (Associated Press) 58 / 67 Syrians fleeing Islamic State wait to cross into Turkey on Sept. 22. (Getty Images ) 59 / 67 An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighter fires at Islamic State militant positions from the top of Mount Zardak, a strategic point about 15 miles east of Mosul. (JM Lopez / AFP/Getty Images) 60 / 67 An undated photo on a militant website Sept. 19 shows Islamic State militants standing guard in front of a police station in Nineveh province in Iraq. (Associated Press) 61 / 67 A frame grab taken from a video released by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan Media shows militants marching at an undisclosed location. (Al-Furqan Media) 62 / 67 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take position near the militant-held city of Zumar in Iraq’s Mosul province on Sept. 4. Iraqi security forces, bolstered by thousands of Shiite Muslim militiamen and ethnic Kurdish fighters, have clawed back ground northeast of Baghdad. (Ali Al-Saadi / AFP/Getty Images) 63 / 67 Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen fire at Islamic State positions during an operation outside Amirli, about 105 miles north of the capital, Baghdad. (Associated Press) 64 / 67 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire toward Islamic State positions during heavy clashes in Duz-Khurmatu, Iraq, on Aug. 31. (Jim Lopez / European Pressphoto Agency) 65 / 67 An image posted by the Islamic State group’s Raqqa Media Center in June showed fighters parading in the Syrian city. (Raqqa Media Center) 66 / 67 A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter aims his rifle from a post in Makhmur, a town in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, on Sept. 8. (Mohamed Messara / European Pressphoto Agency) 67 / 67 An image posted on a militant website in January showed a convoy of vehicles and fighters from the Islamic State group in Iraq’s Anbar Province. (Associated Press)

Nonetheless, the contracts have generated controversy within the military.


Critics, including some military lawyers, contend that civilians are now part of what the Air Force calls the “kill chain,” a process that starts with surveillance and ends with a missile launch. That could violate laws barring civilians from taking part in armed conflict.

The use of contractors reflects in part the Pentagon’s growing problem in recruiting, training and retaining military drone pilots for the intensifying air war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. It is several hundred short of its goal of 1,281 pilots.

The contractors are Aviation Unmanned, a small, 3-year-old company based in Addison, Texas, and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., a far-larger firm based in Poway, outside San Diego, that is the only supplier of armed drones to the Pentagon.

A redacted Air Force document approving the classified contract with Aviation Unmanned notes that the “lack of appropriately cleared and currently qualified MQ-9 pilots is a major concern.”


The five-page document, dated Aug. 24, says the company will provide pilots and sensor operators for government-owned Reapers to help respond to “recent increased terrorist activities.”

A similar document, dated April 15, approved a classified contract to lease a General Atomics-owned Reaper and ground control station for a year and to hire the pilots, sensor operators and other crew members needed to fly and maintain it.

The Reaper “is needed immediately” for surveillance and reconnaissance, the document states.

Both documents black out the cost, as well as most details of the missions and sensors involved.


The Reaper is a larger, heavier and more powerful version of the better-known Predator. Both are made by General Atomics.

The Pentagon requires the Air Force to fly 60 combat air patrols with Predators and Reapers each day. They plan to ramp up to 90 patrols a day by 2019.

Most are controlled from ground stations at Creech Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, command hub for Pentagon drone operations in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere around the globe.

An Air Force spokesman denied that the use of contractor pilots blurs traditional lines of military responsibility in a combat zone.


“Planning and execution of these missions will be carried out under the same oversight currently provided for military aircrews, and the resulting sensor information will be collected, analyzed, transmitted and stored as appropriate by the same military intelligence units,” the spokesman, Benjamin Newell, wrote in an email.

General Atomics employees also provide logistics support, software maintenance, flight operations support, aircraft repair, ground control and other work on most Air Force drones. The company was paid more than $700 million over the last two years for those services, according to Air Force records.

A General Atomics spokeswoman, Kimberly Kasitz, said the privately owned company had no comment for this article.

Aviation Unmanned executives did not respond to repeated phone messages and emails over the last week.


The little-known Aviation Unmanned was founded by a former Reaper pilot and instructor, and it provides aircraft, training and operations in support of commercial and government contracts, according to its website.

The Pentagon’s reliance on contractors is a relatively recent phenomenon. In 1991, the vast U.S.-led force that pushed Iraq’s troops out of neighboring Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War was nearly 100% military personnel.

That changed dramatically as the Pentagon cut its force, and weapons systems became more sophisticated. By 2010, the number of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan had surpassed the number of U.S. military personnel and federal civilian employees, records show.

The use of drones began in 1995 when the Pentagon used a Predator to gather intelligence during the Balkan wars. Their success persuaded Air Force commanders and intelligence officials to embrace the new technology.


Today, nearly every airstrike or special forces ground raid in Iraq and Syria relies on live video or data from electro-optical infrared cameras, wide-area radars and other high-tech sensors on drones.

How fully civilians should participate is a matter of intense debate in the Air Force.

A lengthy article in the 2013 Air Force Law Review, a publication of the judge advocate general’s office, contended that over-reliance on contractors in a combat zone risks violating international law that prohibits direct civilian participation in hostilities.

It cites a Predator missile attack that killed 15 civilians in central Afghanistan in February 2010. Although the military piloted and operated the drone, the decision to fire a Hellfire missile “was largely based upon intelligence analysis conducted and reported by a civilian contractor.”


“It is imperative that Defense Department contractors not get too close to the tip of the spear,” the author, Maj. Keric D. Clanahan, warned.

The combat air patrols flown by drones involve six steps in the kill chain: Find the target, map the location, track its movements, aim a laser to pinpoint it, fire the missile and assess the damage.

“The more closely related an activity is to the kill chain, the greater the likelihood the activity should be barred from contractor performance,” he wrote. The article urged the Pentagon to “only allow military personnel to serve as aircraft pilots and … sensor operators.”

In an interview, retired Air Force Gen. David A. Deptula, who was deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, said he did not believe contractors are in danger of crossing the line into a combatant’s role.


“Weapons deployment only involves less than 2%" of drone missions,” he said. Most flights provide aerial surveillance or intercept and analyze electronic emissions from the ground.

But William D. Hartung, director of the arms and security project at the Center for International Policy, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, warned that there is a thin line between tracking an individual or vehicle and firing a deadly missile.

“The best way to avoid this slippery slope is to prohibit any use of contractors to fly any mission involving drones,” he said. “Military aircraft should be flown by military personnel, period.”

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of international law at the University of Notre Dame, also expressed alarm at the growing civilian role.


Military drones should be flown only by those who “wear a uniform [and] are trained in the law of armed conflict,” she said.

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