Currently, USAF has some 200 ROVER units in the US Central Command area of operations—and demand for the technology continues to grow. However, since the technology utilizes UHF frequencies, bandwidth management has become an issue just as it was with radios, says Harbin. “There comes a point where everyone can’t be on the same frequency,” he explained. The way to “manage it,” he added, is to assign “a unit a frequency.”
The Air Force budget would grow to $234 billion while Space Force spending would shrink to $26 billion under the White House's yearly ask.