By Mark Tarallo
Most U.S. military drone accidents have occurred abroad, but at least 49 large drones have crashed during test or training flights near domestic military bases since 2001, according to a Washington Post investigation. The number of accidents has jumped as the military has brought back drones from overseas and operated them more frequently in airspace shared with civilian planes. The military has almost tripled the number of hours its drones have flown annually in shared U.S. airspace since 2011, according to federal data. Now, the military and the federal government are preparing for a far bigger expansion of drone flights that will transform U.S. aviation—but could also pose the biggest challenge to safe air travel in decades. Thanks in part to a new federal law that will open the national airspace to drones of all kinds, the Pentagon is planning to operate thousands of drones from at least 110 bases in 39 states, plus Guam and Puerto Rico, by 2017.
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