Drones Are The Only Game In Town For Combating Al Qaeda

According to CIA Director Leon Panetta drones are,

the only game in town in terms of confronting or trying to disrupt the al Qaeda leadership,” Panetta told the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles.

Pakistan has complained repeatedly about what it says are airstrikes on its territory by U.S.-operated drones. The U.S. military in neighboring Afghanistan does not comment on the attacks, which typically target Islamic militants in the border region, but the United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from remote-controlled aircraft.

yojoe (in UAV mode) out

Video: Firefight Between Coalition Forces And Anti-Afghan Forces

Video of firefight captured by UAV.

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 mode) out

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 UAV, dubbed the Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS). The UCAS will replace the F/A-18s. This will extend the range and loitering ability of the CVW.

The U.S. Navy’s program to determine the airframe to replace the F/A-18 is the F/A-XX program. This program underscores both the Navy and Marine Corps’s intensified interest in the future of unmanned air systems.

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 Awards New Contract for Remote Weapon System to Kongsberg