The US Air Force may turn increasingly to a new armed drone, the MQ-9 Reaper, to help keep the peace in Iraq once the conflict shrinks in scale and US ground troops go home, a top US commander says. Lieutenant General Gary North, the commander of US air forces in the Middle East, said he is examining options for when and where he can replace manned fighter and bomber aircraft with armed drones."Today we are in an environment where we may not need the large number or persistence of manned aircraft," he said in an interview by telephone Friday with AFP from a base in the region. "We can put unmanned aircraft -- Predator, Reaper, and other assets -- overhead for long endurance periods. We call that persistent stare.
"And with the Reaper, armed with Hellfire and 500-pound precision weapons, we'll be able to have a deadly stare if needed," he said.