<P> As of January 2014, the U.S. military operates a large number of unmanned aerial systems (UAVs or Unmanned Air Vehicles): 7,362 RQ - 11 Ravens; 990 AeroVironment Wasp IIIs; 1,137 AeroVironment RQ - 20 Pumas; and 306 RQ - 16 T - Hawk small UAS systems and 246 Predators and MQ - 1C Grey Eagles; 126 MQ - 9 Reapers; 491 RQ - 7 Shadows; and 33 RQ - 4 Global Hawk large systems . </P> <P> The military role of unmanned aircraft systems is growing at unprecedented rates . In 2005, tactical - and theater - level unmanned aircraft alone had flown over 100,000 flight hours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which they are organized under Task Force Liberty in Afghanistan and Task Force ODIN in Iraq . Rapid advances in technology are enabling more and more capability to be placed on smaller airframes, which is spurring a large increase in the number of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS) being deployed on the battlefield . The use of SUAS in combat is so new that no formal DoD wide reporting procedures have been established to track SUAS flight hours . As the capabilities grow for all types of UAS, nations continue to subsidize their research and development, leading to further advances and enabling them to perform a multitude of missions . UAS no longer only perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, although this still remains their predominant type . Their roles have expanded to areas including electronic attack, drone strikes, suppression or destruction of enemy air defense, network node or communications relay, combat search and rescue, and derivations of these themes . These UAS range in cost from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions of dollars, with aircraft ranging from less than one pound to over 40,000 pounds . </P>

When did the us military start using drones