At any given time there are 15-20 aircraft right over Mosul to gather intelligence and to be in place for airstrikes. Most of those aircraft are unmanned and controlled from the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at a military base in southwest Asia.
Inside the CAOC military officials stare at a series of screens with full motion video from drone feeds and at maps showing where aircraft are operating in the region.
The drone feeds in the CAOC today displayed a range of subjects, from following a man as he loaded his vehicle, staying fixed on a compound, and even trailing a man speeding down a dirt road on a motorcycle.
One screen shows what the U.S. military calls the "donuts" over Mosul — the concentration of aircraft essentially flying circles over the city to gather intelligence and potentially conduct strikes. With the operation to re-take Mosul entering the assault phase earlier this month, much of the surveillance is focused on that area, and there is now a specific surveillance mission focused on the area west of Mosul to the Syrian border.
