Drone videos include unskippable 15-second ads
Or watch a full-length ad to not see any more for the duration of your mission.
By BYOBooyah
BARSTOW, Texas — The atmosphere in the TOC—tactical operations center—is tense. Troops are in contact, pinned down by an enemy firing from cover. The radios are chaos as a platoon leader on the scene tries to provide a situation report without knowing how many enemy troops are attacking or from where. The TOC informs him a drone has been rerouted to the beleaguered friendlies and is coming online now. Everyone holds their breath as a large screen in the TOC switches over to the done feed. The platoon leader leans into his hand mic and hears over the sound of gunfire, “Whopper, whopper, whopper, whopper …”
Such is the scene that played out at the US Army’s National Training Center (NTC) last week as troops got their first introduction to unskippable 15 second ads now embedded in all US drone footage. While the scenario (and the bullets) may have been pretend, the ads are about to become a reality across the military.
The program is codenamed Operation Ad-Suck. When drone soft…
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