Air Force outlines long-term plan for unmanned aircraft

Air Force leaders on Thursday released the service's long-term plan for expanding the role of unmanned aircraft as new technologies emerge and joint warfighting doctrine evolves over the coming decades.

The 80-page flight plan for unmanned aircraft systems contains recommendations for addressing changes in doctrine, organizational structure, training, equipment, leadership, education, personnel, facilities and policy.

The document also establishes an acquisition strategy and addresses life-cycle management issues, such as maintenance and sustainment of unmanned systems.

"Unmanned systems are unmanned in name only," said Gen. William Fraser, vice chief of staff at the Air Force. The increasing role of unmanned systems has affected the full spectrum of the service's operations and requires personnel with a range of skills and experience, he said.

The flight plan institutionalizes the role of drones in the service and establishes a framework for their expanded use.

Eventually unmanned systems could be used to transport cargo and conduct a host of missions that now require piloted aircraft, said Col. Eric Mathewson, director of the service's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Task Force.

Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, said that in terms of tapping the potential of unmanned systems, the Air Force is about where it was in the 1920s with regard to piloted aircraft.