From Robert Verkaik, Daily Mail:  Nearly half of Britain’s top-secret military drones deployed in Afghanistan have crashed – many because of pilot error.

The alarming loss rate has raised concerns about British forces’ capability to wage a successful war against the Taliban.

The Mail on Sunday has discovered that since drones were fully deployed in Afghanistan in 2007, 12 have been lost, costing the British taxpayer more than £30 million.

A Ministry of Defence report into the growing crisis has called for immediate changes to the selection and training of drone pilots and their supervisors. . . .

The crashes mean Britain has been left with 14 operational full-size drones. Five are American-made Reaper UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), which carry 500 lb bombs and Hellfire missiles for strikes on insurgents, and nine are Israeli Hermes models, used for reconnaissance and surveillance.

The accidents have claimed one Reaper drone – worth an estimated £10 million – and 11 smaller Hermes drones, which cost £2 million each. . . .

It is understood that the majority of the crashes occurred on landing and take-off.

One former air controller who worked with drones in Afghanistan until 2010 told The Mail on Sunday: ‘These crashes were kept quiet from us but they don’t surprise me. The Hermes was a very difficult, unresponsive platform.’  (photo: UAS Vision)

Image: uas%20vision%2012%2017%2012%20Hermes.jpg