Department of Defense Admits It's Been Flying Drones Over US for a Decade

A March 2015 report from the Department of Defense has just been released, and it revealed that for the last 10 years, the Pentagon has been flying drones over the US for "non-military spy missions." Many mainstream news outlets have picked up on the story, including USA Today.

Since 2006, there have been 20 documented missions. Fortunately, the report concluded that the DOD conducted these missions lawfully. According to the DOD website, drones - or "UAS" (unnamed aircraft systems) - are only used on rare occasions, when there is a "request from Federal or State civilian authorities." Armed drones are only used for "training, exercises, and testing purposes."

USA Today put together a nifty infographic summarizing the features of two of the more powerful drones operated by the DOD. While currently there are a whopping 11,000 drones being used by the military in the US and abroad (of all sizes and varieties, as you can imagine), some are HUGE and EXPENSIVE!:

Back in 2013, the controversial Austin radio show the Alex Jones Show predicted that by 2020, there would be 30,000 drones patrolling US AIr Ways. Considering the DOD already operates 11,000, seems like we're on schedule:

For the UFO community, this raises a lot of questions. How many "UFO sightings" over the past decade have really been advanced military drones that no one knew existed at the time? How many current UFO sightings are military drones? Considering the size of some of these drones, flying one over a neighborhood could really cause a panic!

With the UFO disclosure movement picking up so much steam, does the prevalence of drones threaten to slow it down? Are drones the new "weather balloon?"

Furthermore, should citizens be concerned that massive un-manned and even armed crafts like these are occasionally overhead?

After all, the government has admitted that many innocent civilians have been accidentally killed in drone strikes in the Middle East.

Have you seen a UFO that might be a drone, but you're not sure? Report it!

Do you have thoughts on the government's policy on drones, or on how the UFO community should address them? Chime away in the comments or on the Facebook page!