The tough soldier who spent a decade leading a team in Iraq that guided drones and special forces to hunt down and kill top ISIS leaders retires from the military. Back in the States, he starts a new company that takes advantage of his military experience and high-tech knowledge, but for a different purpose—using drones to find mines in Somalia and nab wildlife poachers in Kenya. If you think that sounds like the kind of story Hollywood producers would salivate over, you’re right.
Brett Velicovich’s new book, Drone Warrior, is all about his time with a small intel team that used the latest technology, classic spycraft, and military strategy to help capture and kill high-value targets in Al Qaeda and ISIS. It was released by Dey Street Books last month and is already being turned into a movie by Transformers director Michael Bay. The Army veteran, with journalist Christopher S. Stewart, tells the story of how he and his team tracked down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (who ultimately got away), how they killed or captured most of the 20 most-wanted terrorists across Iraq in only three months, and how they used drones to find some of the missing Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram.
It’s breathless storytelling, reflecting the growing impact of technology in U.S. military operations. When Velicovich first started in the Army, soldiers were all competing over a single Predator drone to assist in the hunt for Saddam Hussein. By the time he left, his team alone was directing three Predator drones, “stacking them on top of each other in the airspace to watch our prey from multiple angles.”
Soon after the Boko Haram operation, he had a revelation, that “drones didn’t only have to be about counterterrorism and killing bad guys. I had the power to use drones for more important things than war.” Soon thereafter, Velicovich started Expert Drones. In addition to commercial work for companies like Pepsi, he has helped protect endangered species and aided humanitarian operations with the technology.