One of the top reasons for developing unmanned aerial vehicles is that they are supposed to cost less to build than manned aircraft (with the other justification, of course, being that no one dies in a drone crash). But if you crash enough UAVs, the cost does start to creep up. The Air Force clearly is already starting to feel a bit of that financial pain, as USA Today reports:
* The Air Force has lost about 40% of its Predator unmanned aircraft and lacks enough trained crews to meet the demand for battlefield surveilliance in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to military officials and analysts.*
*The Predator's success in spotting enemy activity has become an important asset for troops in the field. Commanders ask for Predator surveillance three times more than the Air Force can deliver, says Lt. Col. Matthew Bannon, chief of unmanned aerial systems at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. *
This year, Predator flight hours are expected to exceed 70,000 hours, more than triple the total in 2003, the war's first year.
"If you asked me if we had enough people — pilots, sensor operators, mission coordinators, etc. — I would tell you no," Bannon said in an e-mail interview.
The Air Force is hoping to get 22 additional Predator UAVs in the war supplemental funding bill, but even if they get them, they're also plagued by crew shortages. No planes, no crew, big problem.
