The Pentagon is on the hunt for new sophisticated unmanned spy planes that can be sent to any location above the planet within an hour and remain over the hot spot gathering intelligence for at least five years without touching down The Department of Defense wants to develop spy satellites that can detect a military force mobilizing halfway around the world, enabling it to immediately assess possible threats to national security.
An unmanned surveillance aircraft packed into the nose of a missile would be launched over suspicious areas to gather more intelligence; if the threat were confirmed, it would be replaced by another aircraft that could perform low-flying surveillance for up to five years without returning to Earth to refuel.
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While I can see the advantages of these systems for the user, I am a bit concerned by the reaction of countries that will have a ballistic missile targeted at them. It may only contain a spy-plane, but how do you know? Most countries are not going to respond well to having a spy-plane operating over its' territory, let alone one that rides in on a missile, that for all they know could contain a nuclear warhead.
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