Asides

Pentagon Seeks $500 Million for UAS Programs

Aviation Week reported that “there is more than $500 million for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the fiscal 2008 war supplemental,” according to Dyke Weatherington, the deputy director for Unmanned Warfare in the Office of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L). However, that money “is in the yet-to-be-appropriated balance of the Bush administration’s $189.3 billion FY ‘08 request to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” $86.8 billion has been approved by Congress thus far, but the legislature “has yet to act on” the UAS issue. Weatherington would not comment on how much the Defense Department will seek in that category in FY ‘09 “other than to say ‘there is not insignificant dollars in that also.’” Aviation Week also noted that Weatherington recently expressed “misgivings about a centralized organization for all Defense Department unmanned systems.” While admitting that “leadership and a plan to move ahead” are necessary for coordinating military UAS operations, Weatherington explained, “Every warfighter is different.” AT&L’s job, he added, “is to find where the intersections are.”

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