Praise the Lord and Pass the Parachutes: The Pentagon’s new Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap says it will take longer to prepare UASes for use in airlift operations (planned for 2025-30) than for air combat operations (predicted for 2020-25). Why? According to the report (p. 73), troops will be nervous about flying in a crew-less airplane. And foreign countries won’t like robotic aircraft landing and taking off in densely populated areas.
The Pentagon is considering ditching the Air Force’s plan to buy the E-7 Wedgetail as it looks to outsource the airborne target-tracking mission to space, defense officials indicated this week.