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WASHINGTON: Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, director of Army aviation in the office of the deputy chief of staff for operations, recently disparaged the Air Force chief of staff's efforts to optimize our nations intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and enhance the joint, effective and efficient use of DOD's medium and high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle enterprise.
General Mundt's caustic comments, reminiscent of an era prior to the maturation of jointness and service interdependence, would have been better aimed at reducing competing UAV programs and mission redundancies. That is General Moseley's intent, and not, as incorrectly stated, to tell the Army or any other service how to do their business.
Air Force objectives as the UAV executive agent are twofold.
The first is to standardize the development, acquisition and procurement of medium- and high-altitude UAVs, data-links, radios and ground control stations.
Standardization would eliminate the duplication of separate service acquisition efforts; reduce research, development, testing and evaluation and unit procurement costs; ensure interoperability and interdependency; and provide combat capability more rapidly to combatant commanders.
Among the near-term programs that would offer the greatest efficiencies are the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-1C Warrior, RQ-4 Global Hawk, Broad Area Maritime Surveillance/BAMS (Mariner or Global hawk variant), and MQ-9 Reaper.
The second objective seeks to increase joint force effectiveness, specifically by improving the joint force commander's command, control and employment of medium- and high-altitude UAVs operating above 3,500 feet.
The Air Force goal is to optimize the effects derived by centralized control and decentralized execution of the joint force commander's limited UAV assets , and not restrict UAVs to service-specific “stove-pipes,” such as “tactical” for the Army and “strategic” for the Air Force. UAVs, like all aircraft, are capable of delivering effects at all levels of war, from tactical to strategic; to restrict their inherent mission adaptability and flexibility is antithetical to their designed full-spectrum utility.
Optimizing UAV effects for the joint force commander requires a coherent command and control mechanism that knits joint forces together. The key is an information architecture that allows ground units to benefit from all available ISR in an operating area, whether or not they “own” the platforms. Absent that architecture, a service is free to use battlefield chaos to justify the need for duplicative systems and capabilities that serve no purpose other than fostering the notion of ownership, vice jointness.
It is the joint force air component commander's responsibility to establish an integrated theater ISR campaign strategy to ensure effective airspace control, area air defense, and optimal employment for the joint force commander. Harsh and inaccurate public indictments serve no purpose in furthering the present or future needs of our warfighters.
This Air Force initiative to build interdependence and interoperability among our medium- and high-altitude UAVs, roles and missions, core competencies, and joint materiel solutions is the right, joint approach to eliminate redundant acquisition programs and achieve unity of effort.
