The CIA's Air Force Is Back in Operation

Posted on: Mar. 1st, 2005 || Source: aviationnow.ecnext.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

The U.S. Air Force is not flying its unmanned reconnaissance aircraft over Iran, but the Central Intelligence Agency is, say military and aerospace industry officials.

Doing the politically sensitive work of looking for Iranian nuclear facilities and delivery systems, such as long-range ballistic missiles, is not the role of the Air Force's U-2s or Global Hawk UAVs that fly out of Al Dhafra AB in the United Arab Emirates. "The aircraft being flown over Iran belong to the CIA, not the Defense Dept.," says a senior Air Force official.

"They are using the I-Gnats and Predators used early in the Afghanistan war. They are not wide-area collectors like the Global Hawk. They focus on small areas, and that's what they need to find those dispersed [nuclear weapons development] sites," he adds. "The data are sent back to Beale [AFB, Calif., via satellite] just like the Global Hawk imagery. The information is then separated by its code word [prefix] and sent to the proper agency."

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