New Pentagon agency oversees unmanned planes

Posted on: Dec. 19th, 2005 || Source: alertnet.org | E-mail Article | Print Article

New Pentagon agency oversees unmanned planes

CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nevada, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming integral to U.S. warfare, but their use for border patrol, homeland security and even weather monitoring will also increase, the general recently appointed to oversee these new aircraft told Reuters.

Each of the military services is already operating some unmanned systems, and many more are being developed. At least 10 different unmanned aircraft are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan but few have completed their testing, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, or GAO.

GAO said the Pentagon earmarked $2.2 billion of its fiscal 2005 budget for aircraft which are remotely piloted, sometimes from as far away as Nevada, and more sophisticated drones which fly based on a programmed flight plan. That's up from $363 million just four years earlier.

"We are going to try to maximize that capability," said Army Brig. Gen. Walt Davis, who heads a new Joint Unmanned Aerial Systems Center of Excellence at Creech Air Force Base, an hour north of Las Vegas. Work began at the center on Oct. 1.

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