How Air Force Drone Pilots "Fly" The $32 Million MQ-9 Reaper | Boot Camp | Insider Business

I met a former drone pilot. He said it was very difficult because he would leave his home where he lived with his wife and kids, go to work, do drone strikes, then come home to his family after killing up to 30 people. It really messed with his head. Often times, he only had information from people on the ground. Yes, he made the decision to fire, but in reality, he said its the people feeding him information that control his actions. He has no way of really verifying himself.

A lot of times, it is not the drone pilot who makes the decision to fire. The decision goes through a "Kill chain". Drone crews identify a potential target, the imagery is sent to higher ups, analysts, and even lawyers to make the call.

The fact that the military is allowing this to be released means there is something better either available or close to being available

wouldn't killing civilians be more of an intelligence gathering problem rather than a drone/plane pilot problem?

As a reporter, you would think that she would know that its standard practice for the military to derresolution footage when publicly released. The footage isnt fuzzy. The footage YOURE seeing is. They dont have the same issues, and even if they did it has nothing to do with the strikes, failure to gather intel and other issues are a bigger point to discuss than something like that...

That human rights lady saying you cant feel the same cultural sensitivity as if you were flying in an actual fighter jet. Like what? You can’t tell who the hell is down there or what culture they are from being a mile in the air😂😂😂

When I was an artillery forward observer in Vietnam, I had the same fears of killing the wrong people, you do the best you can with the data you have at the time and pray you are correct, it is why war is referred to as an art.

Airforce: Pilots Wanted. Must have at least 5 yrs of Flight Simulator Gaming Experience! 😂

Pretty sure these drone pilots are the best instrument-rated pilots in the world!

Let us get this straight... The drone pilots are not to blame whatsoever.. They are NOT the ones who decide to engage or not to engage.. They have a shot-caller that gets and gives clearances to fire... The pilots just do what they are told to do by the powers above...

A pilot 2 miles in the sky looking at cameras and sensors isn't in any better position to gauge ethics of the activity on the ground than a guy in a box on us soil looking at cameras and sensors. Its clear that insufficent intelligence gathering or the checks and balances of the aproval process that either pilot, remote or local, would have to go through isn't good enough. Being able to delete a person without any immediate risk should be something done cautiously and only with 100% guaranteed success.

My late uncle was an infantryman in the 96th Division on Okinawa and told my dad of an incident that should have killed him, but he survived. Uncle's company was spread out moving through some tall grass as they carefully looked for the enemy. My uncle said as he took a step, the soil felt spongy, and his step was immediately followed by a blast that threw him backwards. He was covered with blood and bits of tissue. Fellow soldiers rushed to him, thinking he was wounded. As it turned out, aside from ringing ears and being shaken up, he was whole and uninjured. What the soldiers found was a Japanese soldier in a camoflauged foxhole who apparently detonated a grenade under his chin, blowing off his head and helmet. As to why the fragments didn't hit my uncle, they figured the enemy's helmet and the material covering the foxhole deflected and absorbed some of the blast. My uncle survived the Battle of Okinawa and was one of the few men in his company who made it through without being wounded or killed. The fighting was so bad, the above story was the only battle incident he would discuss after the war with my dad, who was also a soldier.

As someone who is thinking about doing the Air Force, these videos are so interesting.

The thing I don't quite understand is: Why blame the drone for the civilian casualties? Even if it was a manned aircraft, the outcome would have been the same. It still would have looked like a threat, if the operator/pilot was in the aircraft or not, they're seeing the same thing.

The greatest keyboard warrior ever

A Russian Su-27 did not collide with an MQ-9 over Syria, however a Su-27 did ram into a MQ-9 over the Black Sea, Russian Su-35s dumped flares on an MQ-9 in Syria but that's not what you meant, please try to be accurate in your reporting next time. For anyone wondering the narrator says something at the end about A su-27 colliding with a MQ-9 over Syria where the footage from the MQ-9 being rammed over the Black Sea is shown.

Fun fact: there is a legal function attached to the team that approves targets for termination.

Must be nice to be able to visit Cannon AFB, film for a little bit, and then get the hell out. My thoughts and prayers go out to the poor airmen stationed there.

Well done !

Excellent video, dispassionate and factual.