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| As Predator drone missions have escalated from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, so have the number of accidents. Since January 2011, five Predators have crashed while trying to return to the base |
The United States has inactivated its only General Atomics MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) squadron in Africa, raising doubts over the ongoing use of UAVs from its deployments in Djibouti.
U.S. moves drone fleet from Camp Lemonnier to ease Djibouti’s safety concerns - The Washington Post
The U.S. military has been forced to relocate a large fleet of drones from a key counterterrorism base on the Horn of Africa after a string of crashes fanned local fears that the unmanned aircraft were at risk of colliding with passenger planes, according to documents and interviews.
Air Force drones ceased flying this month from Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. installation in Djibouti, after local officials expressed alarm about several drone accidents and mishaps in recent years. The base serves as the combat hub for counterterrorism operations in Yemen and Somalia, playing a critical role in U.S. operations against al-Shabab, the Somali Islamist militia that has asserted responsibility for the Nairobi shopping mall attack, which killed more than 60 people.
The Pentagon has temporarily moved the unmanned aircraft from the U.S. base in Djibouti’s capital to a makeshift airstrip in a more remote part of the country. U.S. military officials said the disruption has not affected their overall ability to launch drone strikes in the region, but they declined to say whether it has forced them to curtail the frequency of drone missions or hindered their surveillance of al-Shabab camps and fighters.
Remote U.S. base at core of secret operations - The Washington Post
DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti — Around the clock, about 16 times a day, drones take off or land at a U.S. military base here, the combat hub for the Obama administration’s counterterrorism wars in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.
Some of the unmanned aircraft are bound for Somalia, the collapsed state whose border lies just 10 miles to the southeast. Most of the armed drones, however, veer north across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, another unstable country where they are being used in an increasingly deadly war with an al-Qaeda franchise that has targeted the United States.
The squadron located at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Africa was inactivated after years of honorable service to the nation.
“As commander of the 60th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, Lt. Col.
Dennis engaged enemies of the United States from Chabelley Field, Republic of Djibouti from Nov. 20, 2014 to Oct. 8, 2015,” said Maj Kori, 380th Expeditionary Operations Group chief of operations analysis and
reconstructions.
reconstructions.
Under the leadership of Lt. Col. Dennis the 60th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron executed combat flight operations in support of three combatant commanders as the only MQ-1 launch and recovery site in Africa.
“Additionally, the remotely piloted aircraft flown out of Chabelley accumulated over 24,000 hours of armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and were responsible for the neutralization of 69 enemy fighters, including five high valued individuals,” Kori said.
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