What’s the best unmanned sensor aircraft available today to support the warfighter on the ground? “It’s a thing called information,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles Shugg, commander of the Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence at Creech AFB, Nev., April 1. Speaking at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement’s Sensor-to-Shooter conference in Arlington, Va., Shugg said the feedback he has gotten from the guys in the fight indicates that it really doesn’t matter what the platform is as long as the warfighters have access to the information they need when they need it. In some cases, this may even mean that intelligence data is still relevant when it is hours or days old, thus obviating the need to dispatch a UAV anew to gather more info, he said.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
