As the Islamic State’s physical caliphate shrinks to nothing after an almost five-year campaign led by U.S. special operations forces, military insiders say one small unit has killed more of the extremists than any other: the company of Gray Eagle drones in the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.“They are doing the most killing of anyone in the national mission force,” said a former 160th officer, referring to Joint Special Operations Command, which runs counterterrorism task forces in Afghanistan, and does battle against the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and the Horn of Africa. “They’re out there doing the nation’s bidding in a ferocious way.”

Echo Company’s achievements are remarkable, in part, because unlike the Air Force, whose drones are operated from air-conditioned trailers in Nevada and flown by officers, the pilots in this Army aviation company are mainly enlisted soldiers who are deployed in combat theaters.Made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., the same firm that produces the MQ-1 Predator, which the Air Force retired in 2018, and its successor, the MQ-9 Reaper, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle is a derivative of the Predator and falls somewhere between the two in terms of capability. Armed with up to four Hellfire missiles or a mix of other munitions, the Gray Eagle also carries a suite of surveillance gear that includes signals intelligence equipment and high-resolution cameras that can read a license plate from 15,000 feet. The basic Gray Eagle can fly for up to 25 hours, while an extended range version has a maximum endurance of 42 hours.

Echo Company has also seen extensive service in Africa, where JSOC has used its Gray Eagles “to go after high-value targets” in counterterrorism missions in East, North and West Africa, according to a former official at U.S. Africa Command. A small number of Gray Eagles also deployed to Garoua, Cameroon, to help other U.S. special operations forces and their partners in the region in their campaigns against Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa, according to the former Africa Command official.

Source:https://www.yahoo.com/news/how-a-secretive-special-ops-unit-of-killer-drones-decimated-isis-100000657.html

My Take: Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorist Operations need to be intelligence-led and technologically driven to ensure mission success. When these capabilities are deficient as observed in several African Armed Forces, increasing collaboration and cooperation with countries with such technological capabilities remain a viable option and must be instituted on a Government to Government basis.