Military not meeting combat needs: Gates

Washington: US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday launched a push for more unmanned drones, complaining that the military is "stuck in old ways" and not moving aggressively to meet battlefield needs.

In a blunt speech at the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base in the US state of Alabama, Gates called on the air force and other services to re-think their priorities in an age of asymmetric warfare.

"My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield," Gates told the audience of air force officers.

"I've been wrestling for months to get more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets into the theater. Because people were still stuck in old ways, it's been like pulling teeth," he said.

Gates said he has formed a Defense Department task force to quickly come up with innovative ways to provide more drones and other operational intelligence gathering assets into the field.

A Pentagon spokesman said the task force, which was formed late last week, will be reporting back to Gates at 30-day intervals on the progress.

The military currently has some 5,000 "unmanned aerial vehicles," or UAVs, of varying types and sizes, but commanders' demand for them has outstripped their availability.

One barrier has been the air force's insistence that the drones, which are controlled remotely over battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan from as far away as Nevada, by flown by certified pilots.

Gates likened the initiative to a crash program he set in motion last year to acquire and deploy mine-resistant armored vehicles, MRAPs, which the army had been reluctant to field even though they offered soldiers better protection than armored Humvees.

"The department sees this as a high priority, (and) will be making resources available," said Bryan Whitman, the Pentagon spokesman. Among the assets being sought are more drones capable of providing full motion video, he said.

UAVs cost less to operate than manned aircraft, loiter longer over a target, and gather intelligence with little risk, "making them an ideal platform for the tasks that we face today," Gates said.

But he alluded to the air force's traditional resistance to unpiloted aircraft, recalling that it refused to co-fund with the CIA an unmanned aerial vehicle in 1992.

More recently, Gates has butted heads with the air force leadership over its insistence on large numbers of big-ticket F-22 stealth fighter aircraft even though they have not flown a single sortie in the current war.

In an indirect swipe at the air force leadership, Gates argued that the air force needs to adapt and adjust to the lessons of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"All this may require rethinking long-standing service assumptions and priorities about which missions require certified pilots and which do not," he said.

For manned missions, the air force needs to think about whether there are "low-cost, low-tech alternatives ... to do basic reconnaissance and close air support in an environment where we have total command of the skies."

Gates also suggested that the air force consider pursuing a "100-wing air force" with US allies and partners to fill the gap between US military capabilities and expanding global security requirements.

The navy already is promoting the idea of partnering with friendly countries to create a "1,000-ship navy."

The air force should train and equip partner countries and broaden its premier "Red Flag" training event in Nevada to include humanitarian relief scenarios with civilian representatives of government and non-government organizations.

"Success to a large extent will depend less on imposing one's will on the enemy or putting bombs on target -- though we must never lose our will or ability to unsheathe the sword when necessary," Gates said.

"Instead, ultimate success or failure will increasingly depend more on shaping the behavior of others -- friends and adversaries, and most importantly, the people in between," he said.