DoD: Media must request drone strike data

From Air Force Times:

Information on weapon releases from remotely piloted aircraft — previously made open to the public — is now only available through official Freedom of Information Act requests.

On Friday, Air Force Times reported the Air Force was no longer providing a breakdown of weapon releases from remotely piloted aircraft in a monthly summary of airpower statistics. Additionally, Air Forces Central Command removed the information from previously released breakdowns. The releases still contained the RPA data as of Feb. 16, according to an online archive, and metadata in the RPA-less versions of the reports show the files were all created Feb. 22.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement earlier this week the decision to remove the statistics was made in collaboration with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) because the data disproportionately focused on the weapon releases from RPAs.

ISAF spokesman Lt. Col. Les Carroll today refused to expand on the decision. Air Forces Central Command referred all queries to ISAF.