Drones in the desert

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Foreignpolicy.com has a story about forthcoming US deployment of armed drones in Niger.

The U.S. military will begin flying armed drones out of a remote base in Niger in the coming months, marking a significant escalation of the Defense Department’s little-noticed war against violent extremists in Africa.

The MQ-9 Reapers will operate from new facilities the U.S. Air Force is building at an existing Nigerien base in Agadez for nearly $100 million. Until recently, the drones have been based in Niger’s capital and used solely to collect intelligence on militant groups operating in the region.

But last November, following an attack that killed five Nigerien and four American troops near the village of Tongo Tongo, the government of Niger requested that the United States begin deploying armed drones against jihadi groups.

Clearly the US sees this Niger as important in the fight against jihadi groups and also sees armed drones as the way to do it. An out of the way place to develop the technology too I imagine. There is more on the construction of the Niger base here.

The U.S. Air Force is nearing completion of a $110 million project in the Saharan desert town of Agadez, Niger, known as Air Base 201. And even the locals seem to think the Americans are going to be around for some time to come.

“They will call this the U.S. air base. They want us to feel at home here,” said Lt. Col. Brad Harbaugh, commander of the 724th Expeditionary Air Base Squadron. “I remind them it’s Nigerien.”

The construction effort amounts to the largest Air Force project in history, a fact that has more to do with the service’s history of contracting out major construction than the size of the site in Niger.