Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey acknowledged Thursday that the services still must flush out exactly how they will deal with enemy remotely piloted aircraft when they start to appear in the battlespace in large numbers. “I say that’s an area that probably needs work and more integrated work among the services,” he told defense writers in Washington, D.C. Casey said he doesn’t have an opinion right now, when asked if there should be an Office of the Secretary of Defense senior official tasked to bring the services together to resolve issues like airspace deconfliction and air defense architectures that factor threat RPA. “It is always a tradeoff of whether pulling something up to a higher level helps or hurts,” he said. The Army and Air Force “have done very well” in working out an operational concept to better coordinate their RPA activities, he noted.
Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich assumed command of U.S. European Command on July 1, taking over the key assignment as the U.S. and its allies contend with a resurgent Russia and a grinding war in Ukraine.
