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STATEMENT BY
MR. DYKE WEATHERINGTON
DEPUTY, UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE
PLANNING TASK FORCE
OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
(ACQUISITION, TECHNOLOGY, AND LOGISTICS)

BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TACTICAL AIR AND LAND FORCES
HOUSE ARMED SERVICE COMMITTEE
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 26, 2003
 

 

Mr Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to showcase the Defense Department's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Unmanned Air Combat Vehicle Programs.  We are excited about the opportunities unmanned technology offers as the Department transforms to meet future threats and provide more efficient methods to conduct military operations. 

Mr Chairman, I am head of the Department's UAV Planning Task Force.  In October 2001, the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) established the Task Force as the Defense Department's focal point responsible for assisting the Services in their acquisition planning, prioritization, and execution of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles known as UAVs, and Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles which we call UCAVs.  Our goal is to ensure the Department's UAV and UCAV programs proceed in a coordinated manner.

Senior leadership from the Secretary of Defense on down is placing great importance on moving this capability into the hands of the warfighters as soon as possible.  Operation ENDURING FREEDOM provides just a glimpse of the contributions we believe UAVs make on the battlefields of the future.  I believe the Planning Task Force has, and is successfully contributing to this effort.  The Task Force was instrumental in identifying UAV technologies and systems for rapid transition to aid the warfighter.  The funds provided by Congress after September 11 have made a significant impact.  As an example, all Predator UAVs are being upgraded to use the Hellfire missile and many air vehicles in the CENTCOM Theater currently have this capability.

A little over a week ago on March 17, my office publicly released our second edition of the UAV Roadmap covering the period from 2002-2027.  The recently released Roadmap is the "capstone" of a year's worth of effort by personnel from the Services, Joint Staff, Agencies and combatant commands.

The overarching goal of the Roadmap is to define a clear direction to the Services and Agencies for a logical, systematic migration of mission capabilities to a new class of tools for the military toolbox, namely UAVs. 

The document's specific purpose is threefold:  First to help provide options to senior decision makers in development of broad strategies that will define future DoD force structure.  In this regard the roadmap identifies those mission areas that can be impacted significantly by emerging UAV technology.  We want to address the most urgent mission needs that can be supported both technologically and operationally by various UAV and UCAV systems.  Some mission areas are well supported by current capabilities inherent in fielded or near-term systems.  An example of this is airlift where the C-17 in combination with other fielded transport systems provides the required capability for our warfighters.  Other mission areas, however, are in need of additional capability and several of these mission areas present high risk to aircrews.  These are the mission areas the UAV Roadmap will focus on, both in technology and systems development.

The second goal of the Roadmap is to help define near-term resource allocation decisions in concert with the Defense Planning Guidance.  While there are many potential development options in which the Department may choose to invest, the Roadmap provides the "high priority" investments necessary to move UAV capability to the mainstream.  In many respects, it may seem that new UAV ideas and concepts are popping up daily, and that is true.  The potential capabilities UAVs offer range across virtually every mission area and capability of interest to DoD.  At the same time a systematic logical method to migrate UAV capability will benefit the warfighter, and help organize the use of limited DoD resources.

Finally the roadmap is a guide to our industry and allies, identifying the highest value areas for independent investment and areas for international cooperation.  While our industry partners have, and will certainly continue to show innovation, a little help from the government identifying key shortfalls will help focus industry attention.

This Roadmap is also a living document.  We will update it as technologies and programs mature.  Likewise as the Department transforms, we will integrate new operational concepts and priorities.  For example, we have recently made a great deal of progress in implementing network centricity that is not yet fully reflected.  Future updates will capture the latest developments in this area such as Version 2.0 of the Global Information Grid, the Transformational Communications Architecture, and Horizontal Fusion Initiatives.

Your staffs received advanced copies of the Roadmap so by now you may already be familiar with its layout.  In this latest Roadmap edition, we expanded the content, and where appropriate set goals that will focus our near-term efforts and allow the Department to measure progress.   The briefing that follows this statement will provide additional details on the specific content of the roadmap.

The Services' use of UAVs has come a long way in the past decade.  In 1991, during DESERT STORM, Pioneer was the only DoD fielded UAV system, one that still in service with the Marine Corps today.  Eight years later, during ALLIED FORCE, the Department employed three systems: Hunter, Predator, and the Pioneer.  During Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, three systems were employed:  Predator, the developmental Global Hawk, and the small Pointer UAV system.  Today, over 10 different UAV systems are deployed supporting operations in Iraq,  providing a broad range of capabilities: Army's Shadow, Hunter and Pointer; Marine Corp's Pioneer and Dragon Eye; Air Force's Global Hawk, Predator, and Force Protection Surveillance System, and several other small systems supporting specialized requirements.

In summary, the wide array of capabilities offered by UAVs ranges from the very small hand-held systems, to emerging combat vehicles, to the very large, long endurance platforms.  These vehicles provide dramatic, some would say revolutionary, capability to virtually every mission area and at every echelon of command.  The rapid rate at which these capabilities can be developed and delivered to warfighters uniquely positions the United States to adapt to new and emerging threats.  Such a substantial transition requires coordination and detailed planning crossing traditional Service boundaries.  The UAV Roadmap provides a Defense-wide plan for future UAV and related technologies, ushering in a new era of capabilities and options for our military and civilian leaders.

Mr Chairman, this concludes my prepared remarks, I am now ready to present a briefing to you and the other subcommittee members present that covers somewhat more detail of Department's UAV Roadmap.