Good Unmanned News

The Missouri and South Dakota congressional delegations got some good news today, with the Pentagon deciding to base MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles at Whiteman Air Force Base, MO, and Ellsworth AFB, SD. According to a just-released joint statement by the Missouri's two senators, Kit Bond (R) and Claire McCaskill (D):

"The troops at Whiteman have always been at the tip of the military’s spear and the addition of the Predator mission makes this Missouri base one of the most important in the war against terrorism," said Bond, Missouri’s senior Senator and Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "The Predator is one of our most important and effective weapons in gathering intelligence and carrying out strikes on terrorists."

"As the home of the B-2 bomber, Whiteman Air Force Base already plays a critical role in defending our nation. The decision is further testament to the capabilities of the world class team at Whiteman. I'm proud that we will be operating these Predator missions out of Missouri and that Whiteman will continue to be at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq," said McCaskill.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley gave the senators the news this morning, according to the statement. As a result of the service's choice of Whiteman, the base will get 280 new military and civilian personnel beginning in September, and will be fully staffed by February 2011.

South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson (D) in a statement released today not surprisingly also welcomed the choice:

"This decision by the Air Force recognizes the strengths of Ellsworth Air Force Base, and is a testament to the great work that has been done across the board to keep this a world class facility. As Chairman, I have been working day and night to keep this base ready for any future mission, and I’m proud that these efforts and those of our entire delegation have played a role in bringing hundreds of new jobs to South Dakota," said Johnson, Chairman of the Military Construction Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

. . . as did Sen. John Thune (R) in a statement of his own:

"Ellsworth Air Force Base and the Rapid City community is the perfect location for this new mission," said Thune. "Ellsworth's B-1 bombers have been providing on-call close air support to troops in Afghanistan with outstanding success. With this new mission, the men and women of Ellsworth will continue that tradition by providing real-time intelligence information to those same troops." Thune said.

Inside the Air Force reported last month that the Defense Department believes it would be more costly to combine key sensor development programs for Army and Air Force unmanned aircraft than to allow the services to pursue the projects separately. Specifically:

In a recent report to the congressional oversight committees, Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter said there is “not a business case at this time” to merge the parallel development projects for unmanned aircraft systems-based signals intelligence.

The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee requested Carter examine whether the dual acquisition strategies provide the “best value for the warfighter and taxpayer.” The request was part of a Senate report accompanying the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations Act.

Carter’s April 12 report states that “while the capability requirements documents for SIGINT sensors appear to be similar at the macro level, there are significant differences at the sensor function and technical specification level.” That is because the military departments designed their sensor programs to meet their specific operational and technical needs.