As the US Air Force’s demand for more unmanned missions using drones, it has reached a “breaking point” where it simply doesn’t have enough pilots and trained manpower to be able to remotely conduct these missions. Recent issues in the Middle East, mostly centering around ISIS, has seen a massive increase in the demand for drone missions, and the Air Force is struggling to keep up.
The U.S. Air Forces has been forced to admit that too many missions not enough crew means that its drone fleet is currently being stretched to “breaking point.” The Daily Beast has seen an internal service memo sent by senior military officials. In it, Air Combat Command’s General Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle wrote: “ACC believes we are about to see a perfect storm of increased COCOM [Combatant Commander] demand, accession reductions and outflow increases that will damage the readiness and combat capability of the MQ-1/9 enterprise for years to come. I am extremely concerned… “ACC will continue to non-concur to increased tasking beyond our FY15 [fiscal year 2015] force offering and respectfully requests your support in ensuring the combat viability of the MQ-1/9 platform.”
