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.
Army Building Up New Space Operations Branch
Oct. 15, 2026
The Army has long been dependent on space capabilities to navigate terrain, communicate in hard-to-reach areas, and identify and strike targets. Now, the service wants to deepen its space operations expertise and is making plans to expand its own cadre of operators in the coming years.