U.S. Forces Work On UAV Cooperation Plan
(NSI News Source Info) September 28, 2008: The U.S. Army and Air Force are nearly finished working out plans for cooperating on operations of medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Gen. William Wallace, commander of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), and U.S. Air Force Gen. John Corley, commander of Air Combat Command, are scheduled to meet Sept. 26 to finalize plans before briefing them to their respective service chiefs in advance of annual Army/Air Force staff talks set for early next year.
During previous staff talks early this year, Wallace and Corley were tasked with developing “a common view of UAV conops [concept of operations] focused exclusively on the operational level,” Wallace said during a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington Sept. 25.
“I think we’re pretty close to a resolution of common ground between us and the Air Force,” he said.
While each service has unique requirements for medium-altitude UAVs, there is considerable overlap, Wallace said: “Perhaps common platforms, certainly common training, certainly common handoff procedures from one organization to another, [and] probably some common ground station requirements… “
How UAVs are used in theater will still be the ultimate responsibility of the joint force commander in the field, Wallace said. But the services need to develop procedures for dynamically transferring control of UAVs in flight from one service to another if a higher-priority mission emerges, he said. At the moment, there is frustration in the field over the inability to retask UAVs for more critical, time-sensitive missions after they’ve been launched.
“Given that we can get around the procedural and technical exclusivity of some of our platforms, some time in the future we will have a common capability to share both platforms and information and all that sort of thing across both services, and arguably to the other services and the joint force commander as well,” he said.
The cooperative plan follows a bitter struggle between the services for control of medium-altitude UAVs such as the Air Force Predator and the Army’s Sky Warrior, which is a Predator variant. The Air Force was rebuffed by the Pentagon when it attempted to become the executive agent for all but small UAVs that operate below 3,500 feet.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
U.S. Forces Work On UAV Cooperation Plan
U.S. Forces Work On UAV Cooperation Plan
(NSI News Source Info) September 28, 2008: The U.S. Army and Air Force are nearly finished working out plans for cooperating on operations of medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Gen. William Wallace, commander of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), and U.S. Air Force Gen. John Corley, commander of Air Combat Command, are scheduled to meet Sept. 26 to finalize plans before briefing them to their respective service chiefs in advance of annual Army/Air Force staff talks set for early next year.
During previous staff talks early this year, Wallace and Corley were tasked with developing “a common view of UAV conops [concept of operations] focused exclusively on the operational level,” Wallace said during a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington Sept. 25.
“I think we’re pretty close to a resolution of common ground between us and the Air Force,” he said.
While each service has unique requirements for medium-altitude UAVs, there is considerable overlap, Wallace said: “Perhaps common platforms, certainly common training, certainly common handoff procedures from one organization to another, [and] probably some common ground station requirements… “
How UAVs are used in theater will still be the ultimate responsibility of the joint force commander in the field, Wallace said. But the services need to develop procedures for dynamically transferring control of UAVs in flight from one service to another if a higher-priority mission emerges, he said. At the moment, there is frustration in the field over the inability to retask UAVs for more critical, time-sensitive missions after they’ve been launched.
“Given that we can get around the procedural and technical exclusivity of some of our platforms, some time in the future we will have a common capability to share both platforms and information and all that sort of thing across both services, and arguably to the other services and the joint force commander as well,” he said.
The cooperative plan follows a bitter struggle between the services for control of medium-altitude UAVs such as the Air Force Predator and the Army’s Sky Warrior, which is a Predator variant. The Air Force was rebuffed by the Pentagon when it attempted to become the executive agent for all but small UAVs that operate below 3,500 feet.
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