Parting UAV Shot

Parting UAV Shot: In his exit interview Monday, John Young was critical of the Air Force for, in his view, not moving more quickly to incorporate an automated landing capability for its MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles, as the Army has done with its larger class UAVs. In fact, Young attributed the much higher rate of Air Force UAV losses to this lack, Stars and Stripes reported yesterday. "The Air Force built a budget that didn’t include putting auto-land capability in their Predators, despite the fact that we’ve lost a third of the Predators we’ve ever bought, and a significant fraction of the losses are attributable either to the ground control station or the pilot’s operation of that ground control station, or the pilot’s operation of the vehicle," Young said. Adding the auto-land feature as well as other improvements in Predator ground stations are expected to decrease Predator attrition by 25 percent, he said. According to Colin Clark's DOD Buzz blog, a Pentagon spokesman later clarified Young's data, saying of the 36 percent of Predator accidents produced by human error, "many of those [are] attributable to ground station problems." The spokesman said they did not have data for comparison with the Army UAV program. Ahem.

4/29/2009

On the Record

Mission One
"The health and safety of our pilots—all of our pilots—is our utmost priority. Our operational flight surgeons and our medical staff interact with our pilots on a daily basis."
—Brig. Gen. Daniel Wyman, Air Combat Command command surgeon, speaking to reporters during a teleconference, May 9, 2012. He was emphasizing that the Air Force is doing all it can to ensure the safety of F-22 pilots as service officials continue to home in on the cause of why some Raptor pilots have experienced hypoxia-like symptoms in the cockpit like difficulty concentrating, fatigue, headaches, and nausea.

On the Record

Message to Congress
"If you give us force structure back, give us the money, too. Because the quickest way I know to a hollow force is to give us structure without money. Simple as that. . . . 'Make it work' is not a satisfactory solution."
—Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz articulating his message to lawmakers on the Air Force's Fiscal 2013 budget proposal during a speech at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., May 1, 2012. The Air Force leadership has proposed reducing force structure and personnel next fiscal year in order to maintain a ready and capable force as the service absorbs significant spending cuts.