Drone Base in Niger Will Be the Center of America’s Global Shadow War

Drone Base is a platform that matches drone pilots with clients who need aerial footage. Its customers include insurance companies, real estate companies, and construction firms. Its clients can also use drone data to analyze the health of plants and trees or conduct a thorough inspection of buildings. The company has graduated from Y Combinator and raised a seed round from Union Square Ventures, SV Angel, and Rothenberg Ventures.

On a remote stretch of Niger’s desert, hundreds of Air Force personnel are feverishly working to finish a $110 million airfield that will soon be used to stalk or strike extremists deep into West and North Africa, a region most Americans have no idea America is fighting in. It is a front line in America’s global shadow war, and this base will be the center of that campaign.

The facility, which is located near the town of Agadez in western Niger, will eventually accommodate armed MQ-9 Reaper drones. The Air Force already operates an unarmed version of the Reaper at another base in Niger, and the new runway at Air Base 201 will allow it to fly more strikes from there. The drones at Agadez will be able to target terrorism suspects and other targets at a range of distances, from a few hundred feet to more than half a mile away.

During a visit to the facility in February, The Intercept’s Mike Cerre was given a rare look at the base. He saw two Predator XP drones and two CH-4s, a smaller variant of the U.S. MQM-107A target drone. The CH-4s were parked outside a hangar in the northeast corner of the base, while the Predator XPs were parked west of the main runway. Historical commercial satellite images show that both types of drones have been at the base since at least mid-February.

In addition to providing drones, many bases are intimately involved in training their operators. The Air Force’s Randolph Air Force Base in Texas and New Mexico’s Kirtland Air Force Base are both known for their extensive drone training programs, while the Army’s Fort Huachuca in Arizona houses “the world’s largest UAV training center,” according to National Defense magazine. Some private military and law enforcement groups also have their own training centers.

DroneBase offers its pilots some benefits that other platforms don’t provide, but it is not a good place to build a career. For one, the company doesn’t pay its pilots much and many with a high skill level will quickly move on to their own businesses. Additionally, once a pilot uploads their photos and videos to DroneBase, they no longer belong to them. This can be problematic if the pilot wants to use them in a promotional video for their own business. As such, it is important that potential drone pilots have realistic expectations about their earnings. This will help them avoid becoming frustrated when they don’t see the financial gains they expected from the platform.