They just can’t build ’em fast enough. Predator unmanned aerial systems have turned into true workhorses—amassing some 4,000 hours a month in the Global War on Terror. In July, the total was 4,700 hours. Officials at Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, say they just accepted the 125th Predator. In 2006, ASC will move into the third production contract for the popular MQ-1 UAS with its persistent, armed capability. Next up is the larger next-generation version—the MQ-9—which ASC says will fly twice as high, twice as fast, and carry four times as many weapons. These will include the GBU-12, EGBU-12, and 500-pound GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition. Don’t expect to see it in the field, though, before 2008.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
