drone
© AFP 2017/ Bonny Schoonakker
Top brass warn US running out of munitions after non-stop raids on ISIS

The US has mobilised a fleet of missile capable drones to blitz North Korea amid warnings it is running out of bombs to hit ISIS.

The Grey Eagle drones are designed to carry Hellfire missiles and have reportedly been deployed in South Korea as war looms with the North after Kim Jong-un's third missile test fire this month.

The deployment is part of a built up of military ordered by US President Donald Trump.

Already the US has deployed Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) systems aimed at shooting down Kim Jong-un's ballistic missiles.

And the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group has now arrived in waters near the Korean peninsula yesterday, where it was joining the USS Michigan, a guided missile submarine that docked in South Korea on Tuesday.

State department spokesman Mark Toner said: "In addition to Thaad these [drones] are defensive measures that are a response to what we - and by 'we' I mean South Korea, the United States and Japan - view as a real and credible threat to our security."

Earlier this month, President Trump dropped the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), dubbed the 'mother of all bombs', on an ISIS-infested cave in Afghanistan.

But it is speculated that the US Airfore may use a non-nuclear bomb which is BIGGER than the MOAB unleashed on ISIS to destroy Kim Jong-un's underground nuclear sites.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, is a "bunker busting" explosive and the largest non-nuclear bomb which the US has at its disposal.

But US Pacific commander Admiral Harry Harris said so many bombs were being dropped that "we need more".

He said:
"Critical munitions shortfalls are my top war-fighting concern.

"We must maintain our capability to operate in contested environments.

"Additionally, we must continue to expand cross domain fires capabilities and focus on joint integration to strengthen deterrence and enable joint combined manoeuvre.

"Priorities include long-range and stand-off strike weapons, anti-ship weapons, advanced air to air munitions, theatre ballistic/cruise missile defence, torpedoes, naval mines, and a Cluster Munitions replacement."
Trump has ditched the rule banning a drone strike outside of a war zone unless there was a "near certainty" of avoiding civilian deaths.

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.up to 4,666 people — including 745 civilians — were killed by drone strikes in the Middle East and Afghanistan.