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December 14, 2005Study uncovers problems with UAVs
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
Unmanned military aircraft have knocked out enemy targets and collected intelligence in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but are plagued with problems that delay information from getting to commanders for hours or days, according to congressional investigators.
In addition, unmanned aircraft flights are sometimes delayed or canceled because the transmission frequencies they use are too congested, and many are unable to switch to less crowded frequencies, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday.
Many of the problems with the aircraft are not new, but the GAO, Congress’ investigative and auditing arm, said the Defense Department has made little progress solving them. The report said that if the Pentagon does not enforce requirements to make the unmanned vehicles more compatible those “problems are likely to continue and possibly be repeated and made more widespread.”
“We’ve got a lot of people working on it,” Gen. T. Michael Moseley, the Air Force’s chief of staff, said Tuesday, adding that the goal is to get the right information to the right soldier on the ground.
With names like Shadow, Predator and Hunter, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have scored victories in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Air Force used the Predator in over 5,800 surveillance, intelligence and other missions in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2002 through 2005. Last year, for example, the Army used a Hunter to locate an enemy anti-aircraft weapon that had been firing at coalition forces. The Air Force then used a Predator armed with a missile to destroy it, and the Army sent the Hunter back to assess the damage.
In contrast, however, the Army operates both Hunters and Shadows, but the two systems cannot transmit information to each other. U.S. forces have tried to fix the problems with technical patches, but the GAO said that process “can delay receipt of the information by forces needing it, potentially preventing time-critical targeting.”
In addition, the unmanned aircraft are also more likely to be grounded by bad weather, but the Pentagon has said that making them able to fly in all weather could mean they couldn’t fly as far.
Overall, GAO said the Defense Department is using at least six different types of sensors to collect data, but they can’t be used with all the various UAVs.
The Pentagon said part of the problem is that the technology has advanced very quickly. And in trying to get the systems out to combat forces as quickly as possible, adequate performance standards were not developed.
To address the problems, the Defense Department earlier this year created a new UAV center and a review board to help manage the development of the high-tech aircraft. But GAO and Pentagon officials noted that it would not be realistic to use common communications and sensor equipment for all the UAVs, because the various military services have different needs and the unmanned aircraft are not all the same size.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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