US defence secretary signs off plan to improve co-ordination between armed forces on unmanned technologies
The US Department of Defense is establishing a new joint forces unmanned air vehicle centre of excellence and a joint overarching integrated product team (Joint OIPT) to co-ordinate and oversee all future UAV applications and acquisitions.
The new arrangements follow extensive debate among the US armed forces over co-ordination options for UAV development and acquisition. This has included a high-profile push by the US Air Force to take the co-ordination role on behalf of all other services.
Kevin Meiners, director of intelligence, strategy, assessment and technologies in the office of the undersecretary of defence for intelligence, says approvals for the new arrangements have just been signed off by US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The centre of excellence will focus on operations and command and control and will be located at Nellis AFB, Nevada under the command of a US Army one-star officer. Meiners says it will look at issues such as “how can we use UAVs better, and how can you do hand-off between air force and army?”
Existing individual service UAV centres of excellence will be maintained, but with joint force issues transferred to the new centre. The Joint OIPT will be headed by a one-star US Marine Corps officer and will be “in charge of acquisition and materiel solutions”. However, it will act as an overseeing body, rather than taking over individual service purchases.
Meiners says the need to restructure US military UAV management arrangements under an executive co-ordination agency was recommended by a “Joint Tiger Team” assessment of UAV performance in Afghanistan and Iraq completed earlier this year.
Source: Flight International
