The U.S. Air Force revealed last week that its drone units have been training for an “unmanned” war in the contested South China Sea as regional tensions continue to rise.
The “Reaper Smoke” annual competition, involving more than 30 MQ-9 “Reaper” drone squadrons, was hosted by the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) at Hurlburt Field in Florida on September 5-6, according to a press release on September 11.
An Air Force photo showed the competition featured simulated missions and strikes over Mischief Reef, a low-tide elevation of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The reef is within the Philippines’ economic waters, but it has been controlled by China since 1994.
IntelWalrus, an open-source researcher on X (formerly Twitter), was the first to discover the South China Sea context in the “Reaper” competition. A monitor used by a pilot was displaying a South China Sea map that included Mischief Reef, the official …