SecDef Sends More Prdator and Reaper Drone Aircraft To Iraq

SecDef Gates orders more UAV to Iraq.

Air Force Wants New Drone

From the best technology-military blog Danger Room, comes the story of the Air Force’s desire to replace the Reaper with a new “hunter-killer” drone. MQ-9 Reaper first deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2007. It looks like the Air Force wants some of the $500 million budgeted for drone aircraft.

yojoe (in drone [...]

Who Will Build The Drone That Flies Forever

From Danger Room, the competition is on between Lockheed, Boeing, and Aurora to build the future drone, which may stay aloft for up to five years.
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Secretary of Defense Gates to Air Force: Get More UAV In The War

SecDef Gates, according to Aviation Week, continues to bemoan the lack of UAV in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is doing something about it though, including directing the Air Force to,

rethinking long-standing service assumptions and priorities about which missions require certified pilots and which do not.

Could this signal an end to the Air Force requirement [...]

Iraq Update: Too Few Drones In The Air

Danger Room is reporting that there is a shortage of military drone aircraft in Iraq. And insurgents are exploiting this weakness.
Is there still a question about the usefulness of drones?
yojoe out
For more on unmanned aircraft:

US Navy: Carrier Air Wing To Be Unmanned By 2025

The Carrier Air Wing (CVW) in the U.S. Navy currently consists of:

3 squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets
1 Marine Corps squadron of F/A-18 Hornets
1 squadron of EA-6B Prowlers
1 squadron of S-3B Vikings
1 squadron of E-2C Hawkeyes
1 detachment of C-2 Greyhounds
1 squadron of SH-60F and HH-60H Seahawks

By the year 2025 the CVW will include a squadron of [...]

Unmanned Aircraft: $500 Million In FY2008 Global War On Terror Supplemental Budget

Aviation Week is reporting that there is more than $500 million requested, in the FY2008 Global War on Terror supplemental budget request, for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Readers of Dreadnaught are aware of the increasing role of unmanned aircraft.
DoD Plan For Unmanned Vehicles Over The Next 25 Years
MQ-9 Reaper to Deploy to Iraq
Army [...]

DoD Plan For Unmanned Vehicles Over The Next 25 Years

DoD’s vision for drones, UCAVs, remote subs, etc., is contained in the Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2007-2032 was released on 18DEC07, after being 18 months in development.
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Drone Aircraft Log 250,000 Hours In 2007

According to DangerRoom, U.S. military unmanned aircraft will log 250,000 hours in 2007. That is up from 30,000 hours in 2002. The trend is clear: aircraft will soon be all unmanned, or unwomanned.
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MQ-9 Reaper to Deploy to Iraq

Reaper to deploy to Iraq. The MQ-9 Reaper will arrive some time in the fall of 2007. Here are some of the characteristics of the Reaper:
Speed: 300 mph
Ceiling: 50,000 feet
Endurance: 14 hours of flight time when fully loaded
Armament: 14 Hellfire missiles - or 4 Hellfire missiles and (2) 500-pound JDAMS
yojoe