Pentagon to add more drone flights by 2019

But the new plan would draw on the Army, as well as Special Operations Command and government contractors.

A General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper stands on the runway during a drone demonstration of at a California Naval base in 2015.

Despite the secrecy that shrouds the U.S. drone program, BIJ estimated, after confirming with local media, that in Pakistan alone, between 423 and 962 civilians, including 172 to 207 children, have been killed.

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has been on the rise over the last decade and 65 drone flights are now being run daily, up from five a day in 2004.

The increase in drones is expected to improve surveillance and intelligence gathering in new global hotspots.

Under the phased-in plan, the would continue to launch 60 drone flights a day, the would dispatch 16 and the could contribute up to four, according to the newspaper. But senior defense officials said they need at least a small contractor contribution in order to reach the total of 90 combat air patrols per day.

The Department of Defense created the plan after receiving “steady requests” for surveillance data from Commanders, Davis said. The military’s Special Operations Command would fly about 10 drone missions.

Harris and other military leaders thought that the demand for drones would dip as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan waned.

What is the true cost of using military drones? But they are only as precise as the intelligence that feeds them.

“The intelligence analysts who process the information coming from these flights are a critical part of this”, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

The US drone program has recently come under fire by investigative journalists and human rights advocates, claiming that drone strikes kill far more than their intended targets.