The Department of the Interior reported the number of craft in its drone air force. It also pointed out that the use of drones has also increased, The Office of Aviation Services reported.
"With a fleet of 312 unmanned aircraft, the Department of the Interior's (DOI) Office of Aviation Services flew nearly 5,000 missions in 2017 to support everything from fighting wildfires to monitoring dams and spillways and mapping wildlife," the department noted in a Washington Examiner report.
The amount of flights has ramped up by 82 percent, the department's report said.
Most of the drone operations were in Oregon during the Eagle Creek fire that burned through 48,831 acres.
"Adding drone support to fire suppression efforts could dramatically reduce the size and cost of wildfires, potentially saving millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of acres with triple the hours of critical aviation support," said Jeff Rupert, acting director of the office of Wildland Fire.
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke praised the drone program in a statement, saying that drones are a way of using technology to "fight fires in safer and more efficient ways to ensure we are protecting the men and women on the fire line, members of the public, and local communities," the Examiner reported.
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