Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) showed his frustration with the Army last week during the House Armed Services air and land forces panel hearing on intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance assets, after concluding from a Government Accountability Office interim ISR report, “People perhaps [are] not playing well together.” For example, he pointed to a part of the GAO analysis that says the US lost technology, efficiency, and effectiveness because the Army did not consult with the Air Force about developing the Warrior UAV, which is based on the Air Force’s legacy Predator system.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.