Persons considered by the Pentagon to be "high-value" targets for assassination can now be brought down by efficient little airborne killing machines, as increasing calls to globally deploy US special forces (SOCOM) note that terrorist numbers have not decreased, while the unpopularity of US military missions in foreign lands has grown.
Referred to as Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile Systems (LMAMS), these little drones, like bees, are designed to sting once and die. Carrying explosive payloads, LMAMS fly fast and low, under radar, to strike a prescribed point, killing everything within a wide area, according to Military.com.
The Pentagon and SOCOM are now urgently seeking to purchase an extra 325 LMAMS, after blowing through 350 in the past year, as there appear to be widening numbers of targets and little appetite from Washington to pay for boots on the ground, cited by Antiwar.com.
Increasingly, lethal drones are used in what is referred to as "targeted killings."
Partially in response to the 9/11 attacks, as well as the rise of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Daesh, US military assets see the use of targeted killings as a means to efficiently demoralize enemies, while keeping American troops out of harm's way.
The fact that killer drones, although shown to cause widespread collateral damage and thousands of civilian deaths, are much less expensive than a land invasion is merely icing on the cake.
On April 30, 2012, the US government acknowledged for the first time that it employs drones to assassinate persons around the world.
