Goal: More ISR for Fewer Airmen

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Although the use of remotely-operated UAVs has been proven efficient and reducing the risk to soldiers, this method requires a large number of operators. While the ratio of people to aircraft in manned aviation is roughly 1.5 to 1, it takes about 10 people to operate one UAV at any given time. The US Air Force wants to operate its fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles more efficiently and is looking for ways to reduce the number of airmen needed to manage them while still getting better intelligence collection.

“We’re going to change the game — I am working with the whole of the Air Force to build a strategy and an architecture that gives us more ISR for less people, for less money,” said Lt. Gen. Steven L. Kwast, the commander of Air Education and Training Command, according to military.com.

“It is manpower intensive in a big way, and of course it’s very vulnerable to satellite comm[unications], to kinetic problems, to the [theater] it’s deployed to,” Kwast said.

During the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq when intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions were greatly needed for troops on the ground, drones such as MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers were the heavy hitters in overwatch, Kwast said. But, he noted, that was just a band-aid solution at the time.

He continued, “It doesn’t mean we have to live with that. We need to change that because it’s too expensive. I have to be able to project power at a cheaper price point than my adversary, or I’ll be outspent.”

The Air Force is now collecting data on how to best dictate a future strategy, but first needs to “know the elements that make this effective, Kwast said, which could include leveraging new technologies, or perhaps artificial intelligence, to “wean ourselves from this massive manpower-intensive architecture we’re in.”