USAF Peeved About Drone Debate

Of course this isn't about Drones...it's about UAVs, but there's no alliteration if I had said UAV Debate...oh decisions, decisions. Anyway, some USAF generals have their panties in a bunch...AGAIN.

Christian Lowe has an article describing the whole thing HERE

...The Pentagon's number two official tried to throw cold water on this cat fight, but it seems that the fur is still flying.

On Sept. 13, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England forwarded a memorandum to the service chiefs and top Pentagon officials rejecting a recommendation that the Air Force be the central authority for high and medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles.

Air Force brass figured since they do most of the flying these days, the atmosphere - and most everything in it - should be their domain.

But over the last several years the Army has expanded its use of UAVs - particularly medium altitude ones - and they were dead-set against letting their sister service tear control of those assets out of their hands.

What England did was to shift oversight responsibility to the Pentagon, convening a task force that will examine UAV issues and map out a coherent strategy for all the services to develop drone needs, missions and systems, so resources aren't wasted and there's better coordination.

But that doesn't sit well with some top Air Force commanders who see this as more of the same...

Best quote of the whole thing by GEN "Buzz" Mosely (never trust anyone who calls himself "Buzz")...

"This is a recognition of the environment that we have identified as Airmen because this battlespace is something we are very familiar with,"

Is that even English? I trust this reporter to have taken the entire statement as spoken and transcribed it correctly...I know this is a great leap of faith, but it's all I've got, work with me.

It also reeks of a line that a pompous ass character actor from a movie out of the thirties might have said, complete with dramatic throat clearing and harrumphs for good measure. (Pompous British accent on) (dramatic throat clearing) Yes, you see young man, we alone can understand the full nature of operating in the air because as airmen we travel through the air and understand it perfectly, something non airmen will never be able to figure out because as you can see we are airmen...HARRUMPH...(Pompus British accent off).

Yeah, whatever. If you (USAF) did your frickin jobs and gave people (ARMY) what they needed, they wouldn't be spending money, money that could easily be used elsewhere, to buy stuff (UAV) that you have...but that would require serious self critique...and we can't be the ones with the problem...it's THEM...it's always someone else isn't it?

As those twelve step people like to say, the first step to recovery is to admit that you have a problem.