Contribute More, Gates Tells Air Force

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
April 22, 2008
Pg. 4
Suggests more drone aircraft in Iraq
By Robert Burns, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday challenged the Air Force to contribute more to immediate wartime needs and to promote new thinking.
Gates singled out the use of pilotless surveillance planes as an example of how the Air Force and other services must act more aggressively. The planes are in growing demand by commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gates has been trying for months to get the Air Force to send more unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, such as the Predator drone that provides real-time surveillance video, to the battlefield. They are playing an increasing role in disrupting insurgent efforts to plant roadside bombs.
"Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it's been like pulling teeth," Gates said of his prodding. "While we've doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough."
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Gates' complaint about struggling to get more drone aircraft to the battlefield was aimed not only at the Air Force but also at the military as a whole.
Gates made his remarks to a large group of officers at the Air Force's Air University at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Alabama.
Most of Gates' remarks focused on areas in which the Air Force can adapt to changing times.
While Gates' comments were directed mainly at the Air Force, his concern about faster fielding of unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft included a broader appeal to the entire military. The Army, Navy and Marine Corps have been expanding their fleets of drone aircraft.
"In my view, we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt," he said. "My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield."
Gates cited the example of drone aircraft that can watch, hunt and sometimes kill insurgents without risking the life of a pilot. He said the number of such aircraft has grown since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to a total of 5,000.
To push the issue harder, Gates said he established last week a Pentagon-wide task force "to work this problem in the weeks to come, to find more innovative and bold ways to help those whose lives are on the line."
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Gates expects an initial report from the group by early May. Gates likened the urgency of the task force's work to that of a similar organization he created last year to push for faster production and deployment of mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs, that have been credited with saving the lives of troops facing attacks by roadside bombs.
 
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