The Guardian has tonight revealed that the RAF will ‘stand-up’ its new drone squadron – 13 Squadron – at a ceremony at RAF Waddington this Friday (26th Oct). The UK’s five armed Reaper drones are currently piloted from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. In May 2011 the UK announced that it would begin to control drones from the UK and announced the formation of a new squadron to do so. The UK has also purchased five additional Reapers which are also due to come into service over the next few weeks.
In tonight’s Guardian report an MoD spokesman stated:
“The new squadron will have three control terminals at RAF Waddington, and the five aircraft will be based in Afghanistan… We will continue to operate the other Reapers from Creech, though in time, we will wind down operations there and bring people back to the UK.”
We will be a demonstrating outside the main gates at RAF Waddington from Noon – 2pm on Friday to protest the growing use of drones – please join us if you can.
RAF Waddington’s main gate is south of Lincoln on the A607 at point ‘A’ on the map