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Summary
The United States will be deploying new eyes in the sky surveillance technology next year in Afghanistan to back President Barack Obama's surge of 30,000 additional forces, a top Air Force official said.US Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance Lieutenant General David Deptula said a new spying weapon called Gorgon Stare will allow the US military to track multiple targets at the same time. It will send up to 10 video streams simultaneously to 10 different users on the ground within a wide area. Deptula said he expected the first Gorgon Stare pods fielded by April-May. Later models arriving by October will handle up to 30 video streams and subsequent versions will provide up to 65 streams. They will be fitted onto MQ-9 Reaper drones, which are manufactured by privately held General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, but not older, MQ-1 models. Gorgon Stare will be put on the MQ-9s, which is why the United States Air Force will be buying more MQ-9s not more MQ-1s. Because the MQ-9 can carry Gorgon Stare pod, the MQ-1 cannot, he said. Deptula refused to discuss the details of the top-secret aircraft, telling reporters that I am not going to say anything more, other than that we have an RQ-170. It's a low-observable ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) platform.
