The Air Force has good and logical reasons to take over executive agency of the higher flying unmanned aerial vehicle mission, a senior service official said Monday. (Find some in our earlier report.) There’s another element, though, and that is to force a discussion of roles and missions and the open-ended borrowing of USAF people for Army missions. It “makes no sense” for Air Force people to be driving Army trucks and doing other ground force jobs indefinitely if the Army is dedicating a like number of people to operate and fly UAVs, said the official. The Air Force and Army should each “focus on their core competencies,” he added.
The Air Force is seeking funding to let its pilots fly a little more than 1.1 million hours in fiscal 2027, which would be the most in about four years. But even if Airmen actually do fly all 1.1 million hours, it would still be short of the 1.3 million…