Episode 5: War Against Terror – The Predator Age

The episode looks at unmanned systems and the global war on terror, focusing on the rise of the Predator and Reaper.

On September 11th, everything changed. James Roche, then secretary of the Air Force, cut all remaining bureaucratic tape and armed General Atomic’s MQ-1 Predator. Over the next two decades and combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and the Horn of Africa, the US would fight for the hearts and minds of foreign publics with an increasingly prolific arsenal of remotely piloted armed aircraft providing persistent and pervasive intelligence over insurgents and terrorists across the world. The Air Force, the service of pilots, led the adoption of these systems. But while this was a golden age for unmanned platforms like the Predators, Reapers, or space-based satellites, other unmanned systems stagnated: strategic missiles atrophied, tactical missile inventories dwindled, and anti-ship and anti-submarine munitions were de-prioritized.