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Posted on 03/21/2008 10:19:29 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered the Air Force to put nearly all of its unmanned Predator aircraft into the skies over the Middle East, forcing the service to take steps that officers worry could hobble already-stressed drone squadrons.
Pressure from the Defense secretary in recent months has nearly doubled the number of Predators available to help hunt insurgents and find roadside bombs in Iraq. But it has forced air commanders into a scramble for crews that officers said could hurt morale and harm the long-term viability of the Predator program.
Some officers said pressure from Gates resulted in one plan that could have taken the Air Force down a path similar to the German Luftwaffe, which cut back training in World War II to get more pilots in the air.
"That was the end of their air force," said Col. Chris Chambliss, commander of the Air Force's Predator wing. The Air Force plan, presented to the military leadership in January, eventually was scaled back.
The surge in drone flights is Gates' latest push for short-term measures to win the Iraq war that will have long-term implications for the U.S. military. In recent months, Gates has campaigned to increase the size of the Army and to ship new, heavily armored troop transporters, known as MRAPs, to Iraq.
Because of the far-reaching implications of the Predator debate, a fight has broken out between the Army and the Air Force over control of one of the most heralded technological successes of the war.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The Air Force also it still insisting on using officers for this.
The Air Force is not getting much love from the Freepers on this and deservedly so. I’d like to see them take their Powerpoint presentation to some remote FOB in Diyala Province and pitch it to the steely eyed killers that have been fighting this war for the past five years. The Air Force needs to man up and get the job done and quit running to the Congress every five minutes whining that things are just too tough for them.
Somehow sitting in a trailer and flying something half-way around the world just doesn't steam my bean.
Command slot and ego bump at Air Force who want airframes back??
everybody knows the air farce is not the real military.................navair baby
>>Train Army & Marine crews. They’ll do the job without crying about the workload.
And the Marines will cumshaw (i.e., requisition) enough parts and fuel to keep them running 24/7 until 2012. Then they’ll cannibalize the drones out of action to keep the rest flying.
Oh, and they’ll figure out how to put a JDAM aboard.
God Bless you. I thought you might have a connection to Navair with the screen-name paddles. I was an AO in an A-6 squadron. The Naval Officers I worked for and with were the finest men I have ever met, and I’m certain you are the same. Thank you for your service.
I had forgotten that the AF also insists on using only those trained and qualified in real (jet?) aircraft first. That is a years long process. There is no way they can ramp up very fast with this requirement. Maybe they get better results with this, with fewer accidents, but I have heard no data on this. I strongly suspect the AF would be telling us this if they had such data.
My understanding is the Army has had good results using Warrant Officers, just as they do in helicopters. This would be a major culture change for the AF, but they’ve gotta do something to meet the need. This is really not “business as usual”.
There’s already a heavy version of the Predator called the Reaper. No need to up-armor the Predator.
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I'd love to have done that when I was in, would have done it in my off-duty time, too.
The idea of getting one bad-guy or preventing one IED from getting the good guys would have been enough motivation
Woudn't even have to be officers at that point...new use for photo ops.
Civvies flew Predators for many years for one of the alphabet agencies.
And I can think of at least one old horse soldier who embraced the tank and did quite well with them: Gen. George S. Patton.
Now manned aircraft to unmanned drones; piloted by geeks in trailers watching a video screen with joystick in hand; that's a bit tougher to swallow for the men who spent their whole careers turning and burning.
Manned and unmanned both have their places. I can't see unmanned totally replacing manned. Eventually the enemies will learn to jam signals or insert their own command stream into the instructions for the drone.
Nothing electronic is totally hack proof these days.
The training could be simplified. You'd train on video simulators until you were proficient...then on the real deal. If you had to fire, a com-link from you to the one in charge, or you could have a WSO take over for you, if they were concerned over that. Satellite link could easily keep you in coms with the ground pounders.
My grandfather was a 35 yr Navy man. 30 years enlisted as an Gunner's Mate/AO (on the original Sara) and then 5 as an "O" in WWII.
AO's are the best! Have a great weekend, shipmate!
You are right, but it's better than that. This approach is normally called on-the-job training, and in this case, there's no better training to be had. It should be more cost effective than firing live rounds at dummy targets.
You could go back to big crews like the old WW2 bombers had. There is a problem with too much information coming at the pilot or even pilot and weapons officer at once which wouldn't be so much of a with bigger crews for a UAV. You wouldn't be limited by aerodynamics on how many people you can cram into a certain size of airframe. You could even specialize with expert pilots handling takeoffs and landings with control switched to average pilots for patrolling.
I agree fully. A bank of folks looking at a bunch of monitors would certainly be better than one set of eyes. There is still no doubt we’d need the full-sized aircraft for missions, but this certainly could help fill gaps.
I don't think the Air Force will give up on manned combat planes until they come up against unmanned Chinese fighters capable of 15 or 20-G turns that would turn a pilot into pulp or even a sustained 8-G turn that would cause a pilot to black out. The areodynamics of a modern fighter exceed the capabilities of any pilot.
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