Looking to the Future UAV based Air Force.

[GZR_Sactargets]

DefenseNews.com
May 14, 2009

Mullen: Drones Future Stalwart Of U.S. Force

By Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON -- Unmanned aircraft likely represent the future for U.S. military aviation with next generation bombers and fighter planes operating without pilots onboard, the top U.S. military officer said May 14.

"We're at a real time of transition here in terms of the future of aviation, and the whole issue of what's going to be manned and what's going to be unmanned," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate hearing.

"I think we're at the beginning of this change," Mullen said when asked about plans for developing a new bomber aircraft.

The use of drones has dramatically expanded just in the past few years, he said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the same hearing that military planners needed to answer the question whether a new bomber would have a pilot in the cockpit or operate as unmanned aircraft.

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mullen said that Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter now being built could be the last manned fighter jet before robotic planes take over that role.

"I mean, there are those that see JSF as the last manned fighter," Mullen said of the F-35. "I'm one that's inclined to believe that."

The U.S. military and intelligence agencies now use thousands of drones, ranging from small three-foot-long (1 meter) aircraft that can be thrown into the air by hand to the larger Global Hawk, with a wingspan of 116 feet (35 meters), in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Although Gates has pushed for cuts in expensive weapons systems - including plans for expanding the fleet of F-22 fighter jets - his proposed budget for fiscal 2010 calls for increasing funding for unmanned drones, including Predators and the newer Reapers.

"This is one of the significant growth areas in the budget," Gates said.

The defense secretary's budget calls for spending $2 billion on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, with much of the money going to drones.

"We will ramp to build 48 Reapers a year during this budget," Gates said. "We are really placing a major bet in this area."
__________________________________________________________

National Journal's CongressDailyPM
May 14, 2009

Gates: Next-Generation Bomber Might Fly Without A Pilot


Defense Secretary Gates told lawmakers today he is considering making the Air Force's next-generation long-range bomber a pilotless aircraft -- an ambitious undertaking that would put unmanned technologies at the forefront of U.S. offensive military capabilities. The Air Force had planned to field a manned bomber in 2018, but Gates canceled the nascent program in the FY10 budget request sent to Capitol Hill last week.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Gates said advances in unmanned technologies since the Air Force launched the bomber program in 2006 were among the reasons he stopped the program, which was not under contract. "Does it need a pilot in it?" he asked. Gates said he will review requirements for the bomber during the Quadrennial Defense Review of military capabilities and needs, now under way. The Air Force, long steeped in the culture of combat aircraft pilots, had been expected to field a manned bomber, but officials in recent years left open the option of an unmanned version of the aircraft.

In recent weeks, Gates and other top Pentagon officials have emphasized in statements that the future of aviation rests largely in the unmanned aerial vehicle-technology that has been used increasingly in Iraq and Afghanistan, for traditional surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and striking targets. Indeed, the FY10 budget request includes nearly $1.3 billion to buy 60 Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, $1.5 billion for five Global Hawks and $225 million to buy 1,232 smaller Raven and Shadow UAVs -- with more investments expected.

During today's testimony, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen said the military is at a "real transition time here" regarding the mix of manned and unmanned aircraft. The four-star admiral added he is "inclined to believe" that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in development will be the last manned fighter jet procured by the U.S. military.

Meanwhile, Gates shot down any suggestion that the Air Force needs more than the 187 F-22 Raptor fighter jets planned, saying the F-22 fleet, when combined with F-35s and UAVs, will be more than adequate to meet any threat, including one from China.

"If you're only talking about the F-22, there may be merit to some of these arguments," Gates said. "But the fact is the F-22 is not going to be the only aircraft in the tac [tactical] air arsenal."

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., whose state has the F-22 assembly plant, said the military needs more Raptors, which have air-to-ground capabilities, because of the proliferation of surface-to-air missiles. But Gates replied that "the only defense against surface-to-air missiles is not something that has a pilot in it."

by Megan Scully

__________________________________________________________-

Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
May 15, 2009

Programs May Be Canceled But Not The Concepts, Gates Says


The fiscal 2010 U.S. defense budget may call for terminating programs like the presidential helicopter and ground vehicles for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems, but the concepts behind them are still sound, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says.

In hearings May 13 and 14 before the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were quizzed by lawmakers about programs that had been killed or suffered sharp funding cuts, like the study for the next-generation long-range bomber. Gates' answers seemed to indicate that particular programs might be dead but the concepts behind them could generate better managed programs in the future.

While he personally thought "we do need a follow-on bomber," Gates told Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) he was terminating the bomber study to await the findings of the Quadrennial Defense Review and the Nuclear Posture Review.

"This is one of the issues where I felt we did not have enough analysis to make a final decision," Gates said.

Thune, whose home state was an expected contender to host the long-range bomber base, noted that Gates has said he relied on the last QDR to make many of his budget decisions and asked why that wasn't so for the bomber program.

"We have a lot more experience in the last two or three years with unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] than we had at the time of the last QDR," Gates said, adding that he also wanted to see if nuclear arms reduction talks with the Russians would affect the U.S. nuclear defense triad of missiles, submarines and bombers "or whether we still need a triad." Mullen noted military aviation was "in a real time of transition -- what's going to be manned, what's going to be unmanned."

Gates also agreed with Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) that the Army needs a new generation of ground vehicles to go with the FCS program. "I couldn't agree more, but we gotta get it right if we're going to spend $150 billion," Gates said, explaining why he terminated all eight FCS ground vehicles.

Gates told the House committee (Aerospace DAILY, May 14) that while he ended the VH-71 presidential replacement helicopter program because it was late and over budget, the president still needs a new helicopter.

"But one that is managed a lot more carefully," he added.

-- John M. Doyle
_____________________________________________________________

[MIKE JG]

So is some big dude going to come looking for me now and ask me if my name is John Connor??

[Jumpshot724]

Lol.

"Come with me if you want to live."

[GZR_Sactargets]

From AF Daily Report 18 May 09

Last Manned Aircraft?: Despite eliminating the Air Force's next-generation bomber from the 2010 defense budget, Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged it was his personal view that "we probably do need a follow-on bomber." But he told the Senate Armed Services Committee during May 14 testimony that much had changed since the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review directed USAF to field the NGB by 2018. And, he now believes that the outcome of the new QDR and Nuclear Posture Review may provide different insight on that bomber and will question "whether, for example, the follow-on bomber needs to have a pilot in it." Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed, declaring, "There are those that see the JSF [F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter] as the last manned fighter—or fighter bomber or—or jet, and I'm one that's inclined to believe that." (The Air Force is slated to purchase the last of its 1,763 JSFs in 2034.) Mullen said, "We're at a real time of transition here in terms of the future of aviation, and the whole issue of what's going to be manned and what's going to be unmanned, what's going to be stealthy, what isn't, how do we address these threats … it's changing, even from 2006."

[GZR_Sactargets]

From AF Daily Report 17 Jun 09

Turning Point: For the first time, the Air Force will train more pilots this year to fly MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles than it does to fly its manned fighters and bombers, USA Today reported yesterday. Citing interviews with senior service officials as well as UAV-related documents, the newspaper stated that 240 unmanned aircraft operators will be trained this fiscal year compared to 214 new fighter and bomber pilots. There's no doubt that use of UAVs has exploded, making operators of them one of the most stressed positions in the service and creating a demand to train more of them. Today there are about 35 simultaneous combat air patrols of MQ-1s and MQ-9s in Southwest Asia that provide troops in Afghanistan and Iraq with around-the-clock overhead streaming video of points of interest on the ground. If all goes according to plan, this number will surge to 43 by the end of Fiscal 2010 and to 50 in Fiscal 2011. Already the service has a two-pronged approach to churn out qualified operators more quickly: training junior non-pilot officers to fly UAVs, and moving new graduates of undergraduate pilot training directly on the unmanned track.