The Army-Air Force flap over who should be in charge of unmanned aircraft appeared to have been settled by a Sept. memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.
But the issue is far from resolved, and the services can be expected to continue squabbling. One major point of contention is England’s mandate to combine the Air Force Predator and the Army Sky Warrior into a single aircraft. That sounds good in theory, but it could take years to design a “general purpose vehicle” that meets both services’ needs. Further aggravating the situation is that both services are competing for production capacity. The manufacturer of both aircraft, General Atomics, is unlikely to have enough capacity to increase production so it can meet both services’ requirements, said Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne.
The merger of Predator and Warrior is “all about production capacity,” he said. “We are behind schedule on Predator. We need another hundred Predators.”
General Atomics disagrees. “Our current production capacity exceeds the number of aircraft we are currently under contract to produce,” said a spokesperson.
Industry experts point out that the company may be meeting current orders but that the Air Force is not placing more, because it doesn’t think the company can satisfy them.