US Air Force Chief says drone program still "new, progressing"

WASHINGTON, April 24 (KUNA) -- Although much attention has been given to the United States' controversial use of drones, Air Force Chief-of-Staff General Mark Welsh said on Wednesday that unmanned vehicles make up less than 10 percent of all the aircraft he oversees.
"About 97 to 98 percent of what we do with remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), maybe even higher during some time periods, is purely intelligence collection," said Welsh in remarks at the National Press Club.
He was answering a question about the "depersonalization of killing" whenever a remote-controlled plane launches a missile thousands of miles from where its operator sits.
Welsh emphasized that the Air Force is "progressing" with unmanned capability as the "career field is new.
"Our RPA fleet is not a huge percentage of the United States Air Force," he added. "And it's not going to dramatically change in the near future.
"Remember, we're at the Wright Flyer stage of remotely piloted aircraft, basically. We're just getting started," he said. "And the rapid, rapid expansion between 2006 and today in the remotely piloted aircraft business as a result of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan has been dramatic." So dramatic, in fact, that a report released last week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the drone program is understaffed, and the drone operators are overworked and stressed, with many suffering clinical distress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), much like their colleagues on the battlefield.
The report also criticized drone piloting for being a job with no upward prospects.
"There have been some changes made that are having an impact now," Welsh noted in response.
Welsh admitted there are "good lessons to learn" in the GAO report.
"There is a huge investment of people and of cash to try and meet the needs in Iraq and Afghanistan and the needs of the counterterrorism conflict around the world," he continued. "And so all that happened with a group of people who were stressed to begin with. They were under pressure from this rapid expansion. They were conducting combat operations. There was a lot of pressure on this community, and we have to make sure we're treating them the right way from here forward." But with the US Air Force hoping to lead the world in drone technology, several obstacles remain.
"Right now we still can't fly multiple RPAs in the same airspace," explained Welsh. "Not just in the US, but also national airspace controls in other nations don't know how to track them, manage them, organize them because they're all being operated independently by people in different locations. And so we've got to figure that out". (end) ys.hb