Report: UAV maker falls behind war needs

[unhappycamper]

Report: UAV maker falls behind war needs
USA Today - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Sep 23, 2008 10:06:45 EDT

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s plan to put more unmanned aerial vehicles in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan as a critical weapon against insurgents relies on a company that government investigators and military analysts say has not met the skyrocketing demand for the aircraft.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, maker of the unmanned Predator and Reaper planes, has shown it can’t keep up with the workload for its contracts, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last month.

The company’s Predator and Reaper drones are at the heart of the Pentagon’s efforts in Afghanistan, as the drones are used to attack Taliban targets hiding in mountainous areas hard to reach on the ground.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made deploying more drones his top priority. The Taliban, the fundamentalist Muslim group that controlled Afghanistan until it was ousted by U.S. forces in October 2001, has regained strength in the past two years.

“It’s a concern because the Army and Air Force are trying to surge their production,” said Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. “If General Atomics can’t keep up with the demand, war fighters can’t get the intelligence they need.”


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/09/gns_uav_maker_092308/%2e