US Ramps Up Drone Warfare, Fires Improved Iranian Weapons Back at Iran

Just days after the United States fired a one-way attack drone for the first time in combat, a Senate committee on March 5 highlighted an urgent need to increase military unmanned vehicle production, training, and use. “This issue has profound implications for both our warfighting readiness and our future prosperity. I’m not really sure Americans understand that fully yet,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate committee on Armed Services. During the hearing on Wednesday, Wicker acknowledged the U.S. combat debut of the “Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System”—or LUCAS drone—during Operation Epic Fury against Iran. Admiral Brad Cooper, the Central Command leader of U.S. military forces in the Middle East, said the military had launched “countless one-way attack drones, achieving massive effects.”...