The Air Force works “corporate approval” for each Total Force Integration mission set during its workup for the Future Years Defense Plan, Brig. Gen. Allison Hickey, TFI director, told the Daily Report. However, many of the 138 mission sets (see above) in this fourth TFI phase, explained Hickey, “will likely be started” as initial operational capabilities during the FYDP and not reach full operational capability until “outside the FYDP.” For instance, she said that USAF plans to begin training New York Air National Guard personnel on the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle—replacements for their BRAC’d F-16s—in Fiscal 2009, but the UAVs will be delivered over the following four years. Hickey said that about 90 of the initiatives “have gone through the [Program Objective Memorandum] filter,” and at least half are included in the POM for 2007 through 2009.
Sikorsky is pitching a modified "U-Hawk" version of older UH-60 Black Hawk series helicopters as autonomous resupply aircraft with additional capabilities as missile or drone swarm launchers.
