The United Nations wants to employ unarmed remotely piloted aircraft for the first time in a peacekeeping operation, reports AFP. UN officials would like to see member states, such as the United States or France, supply RPA for monitoring fighting in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwanda is accused of aiding rebels fighting the Congolese government, according to the wire service’s Nov. 23 report. This would be one step to strengthen MONUSCO, the UN’s stabilization mission in the DR Congo. However the precedent-setting move is raising concern among some UN members over the issue of who would have access to the intelligence information gathered by the overhead surveillance platforms, states the report.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.