US prepares drones, ending era of jet pilots

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Contractors present ‘nano-size’ drones for intelligence gathering
* Study reveals US accounts for 77% of global drone research, development

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: As part of an expanding programme of battlefield automation, the US Air Force has said it is now training more drone operators than fighter and bomber pilots and signalled that the end of the era of the fighter pilot is in sight, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

In a controversial shift in military thinking – one encouraged by the now-confirmed death of Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a drone-strike on August 5– the US air force is looking to hugely expand its fleet of unmanned aircraft by 2047. Just three years ago, the service was able to fly just 12 drones at a time; now it can fly more than 50. At a trade conference outside Washington last week, military contractors presented a future vision in which pilotless drones serve as fighters, bombers and transports, even automatic mini-drones programmed to attack in swarms.

Tiny robots: Contractors made presentations for “nano-size” drones the size of moths that can flit into buildings to gather intelligence; drone helicopters; large aircraft that could be used as strategic bombers and new mid-sized drones could act as jet fighters. Some 5,000 robotic vehicles and drones are now deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. By 2015, the Pentagon’s $230 billion arms procurement programme, Future Combat Systems, expects to robotise around 15 percent of US armed forces. In a recently published study, the Unmanned Aircraft System Flight Plan 2020-2047, air force generals predicted a boom in drone funding to $55 billion by 2020.

Last month, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates had underscored the change in strategic thinking when he capped the production of the F-22 Raptor, the US Air Force’s most advanced interceptor, at just 187 planes, arguing that it was designed to fight 20th century super-power conflicts or “near-peer” engagements – and was not crucial to any future conflicts foreseen by the Pentagon.

In June, Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, said he couldn’t envision a day when he had enough surveillance assets. “The capability provided by the unmanned aircraft is game-changing. We can have eyes 24/7 on our adversaries,” said General Norton Schwartz, the US air force chief of staff.

Main contributor: According to Oxford Analytica, the US is likely to account for 77 percent of global drone research and development and 64 percent of procurement over the next decade. US firms currently control more than 50 percent of the market and could gain a further 10 percent over the next decade. As US domestic approval for the “Af-Pak” conflict slips (a new Washington Post poll found less than a quarter of the US public support sending more troops to Afghanistan), the reliance of drones is likely to grow, analysts say. But with mounting civilian casualties, even as an estimated 100 Taliban members and perhaps one half of Al Qaeda leadership have been killed in drones attacks since September, there is rising Pakistani opposition to US strikes on its soil. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani repeated his requests this week for the transfer of drone technology to the Pakistani military. US officials have yet to publicly respond.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg7_20