Air Force Rebuts Report It May Waste $8 Billion on Drones
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The U.S. Air Force says the Pentagon’s inspector general got the numbers wrong in asserting that the service risks wasting $8.8 billion on MQ-9 Reaper drones.
The watchdog agency said in a Sept. 30 report that the service may spend that much “to purchase, operate and maintain 46” drones it doesn’t need, for a fleet totaling 401. Now the Air Force has responded, saying it plans to buy only 346 of the General Atomics pilotless planes. The inspector general, it said, used outdated information.