USAF Chief: Crews Will Operate Multiple UAVs
The U.S. Air Force wants its airmen who pilot unmanned aerial vehicles to fly more than one of the aircraft at a time, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told defense and military leaders May 21.
Now, the service flies one MQ-1 Predator with one crew at one ground control station, Schwartz told those who attended a forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"Now that is a very Neanderthal way of operating," he said. "Ideally we'd be able to operate more than one Predator from the same ground station with one crew. That is achievable."
Schwartz described the operation of multiple UAVs at a time by a single crew as a "turning point" for the service, which wants to continue expanding the role of unmanned aircraft. Already, the Air Force has increased the number of Predator and MQ-9 Reaper orbits it flies over Iraq and Afghanistan from 11 in 2007 to 33 today. The goal is 50 by 2011.
Also on the matter of UAVs, Schwartz suggested an unmanned cargo aircraft might be in the Air Force's future.
"Maybe you consider remotely piloted cargo aircraft. Is that so farfetched? I don't think so," Schwartz said.
An unmanned nuclear bomber is also a consideration, although Schwartz told the audience member who asked about the possibility that he doesn't support fielding such an aircraft. The next long-range strike aircraft, he said, should have a pilot in the cockpit
"If we had a nuclear-capable bomber, would we be comfortable if the nuclear capable bomber was unmanned?" Schwartz asked. "That is a serious question."
After the forum, Air Force Times asked Schwartz if his service would embrace the automation necessary for a pilot to fly more than one UAV. The service has been criticized by John Young, the former defense undersecretary for acquisition, for not adding auto-land features to its Predators, causing the UAVs to crash because of human error.
Schwartz promised the Air Force will do better to embrace automation and pointed out the service will add the automation feature to its MQ-9 Reaper B models.
"I disagree with John Young on that because I don't think there's resistance on our part," he said. "The question is what do you integrate first? Do you put sensors on first or do you put on other capabilities? I think it's simple when you have guys going through doors and windows. You put sensors on first."
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