by Our Foreign Desk

THE US plans to increase drone aircraft flights worldwide by half over four years, the Pentagon announced on Monday.

In the the latest escalation of tensions in the new cold war, civilian contractors will be paid to deploy more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Under the plans laid out by senior defence officials, the air force would continue to provide 60 daily drone missions, while the army would conduct about 16, and US Special Operations Command and civilian contractors would carry out up to 10 each.

Civilian contractors would only fly spy drones, not the armed aircraft, but that would free up military drones for attack missions.

One unnamed official claimed “aggression” by Moscow and Beijing as justification for violating the airspace of sovereign nations and bombing unsuspecting civilians.

Other targets include Syria — ostensibly as part of the war against Islamic State (Isis) — where drones are being redeployed from Afghanistan.

Former drone operators have warned that there is no legal oversight of operations, which include assassination of US citizens overseas deemed threats to national security.

The US has come into conflict with Russia over the western-backed coup in Ukraine and the subsequent civil war against anti-fascist forces in the eastern Donbass region.

The US has supplied unarmed military vehicles, including spy drones, to the Kiev regime.

Washington has also attacked Beijing’s land reclamation work in the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea — which lie on a major shipping route — ordering patrol aircraft to violate Chinese airspace.