Drone Maker Can't Keep Pace With War Needs, Report Says

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
September 23, 2008
Pg. 14
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's plan to put more drones in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan as a critical weapon against insurgents relies on a company that government investigators and military analysts say has not met the skyrocketing demand for the aircraft.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, maker of the unmanned Predator and Reaper planes, has shown it can't keep up with the workload for its contracts, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last month.
The company's Predator and Reaper drones are at the heart of the Pentagon's efforts in Afghanistan, as the drones are used to attack Taliban targets hiding in mountainous areas hard to reach on the ground.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made deploying more drones his top priority. The Taliban, the fundamentalist Muslim group that controlled Afghanistan until it was ousted by U.S. forces in October 2001, has regained strength in the past two years.
"It's a concern because the Army and Air Force are trying to surge their production," said Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. "If General Atomics can't keep up with the demand, war fighters can't get the intelligence they need."
General Atomics disputed the GAO's findings, saying it is running one month ahead on some contracts and has produced 300 Predators and 50 Reapers so far.
"These major efforts and activities have been accomplished by an extremely efficient and innovative company staffed by exceptional employees," General Atomics President Tom Cassidy said in an e-mail. "Such monumental accomplishments could not have been made possible if all the criticisms detailed in the GAO's report were true."
The GAO report was prepared in response to a protest filed by General Atomics and an affiliated company after they lost the bidding for a Navy drone contract.
Air Force budget documents detail General Atomics' problems in supplying the aircraft. It took the company 10 months to deliver 24 Predators ordered in July 2006, records show, and it will take 17 months for the company to deliver the same number of aircraft ordered in April. They won't start arriving until September 2009.
A Predator costs $4 million. The more-advanced Reaper costs almost $12 million.
"General Atomics is a good engineering company that has had problems transitioning to high volume," former Air Force secretary Michael Wynne said.
Thompson said General Atomics has lacked the resources of larger contractors, making it difficult to meet the skyrocketing demand for unmanned aircraft.
Gates has made fielding drones a top priority, akin to the production of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles that have been rushed to war zones to protect troops from roadside bombs.
The Pentagon wants Predators and Reapers to fly 50 combat air patrols per month in Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, it has 28 combat air patrols a month and wants to reach 31 by year's end.
The need for more battlefield video provided by drones has been insatiable. There has been a 300% annual increase for full-motion video, according to the Pentagon. It has been used to track insurgents planting roadside bombs, the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.
 
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