Strategic Studies Quarterly. Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2010
Abstract
COMMENTARY: Like most members of Congress, I am a frequent user of the national airspace system, traveling between Washington and my congressional district in Alabama on a near weekly basis. This lifestyle requires trips to multiple airports in some of the busiest, most-restricted airspace in the country. Additionally, the US Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker and the Air Force's Lemay Center for Doctrine Development and Education at Maxwell-Gunter AFB are in my congressional district. As a result, I am very interested in and concerned about how unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will affect the areas of safety and mission training. Airspace regulation is a concern not only for my personal travels but also because of my duties as a member of the House Armed Services Committee. It is particularly pertinent to my assignment to the Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and the Air and Land Forces Subcommittees. Over the last year, I have traveled to Iraq, Pakistan, and twice to Afghanistan on congressional delegations. I have seen first-hand how valuable the entire spectrum of UAS platforms is to intelligence gathering, tactical warning, and taking the war to our enemies. After taking a flight over the Hindu Kush in an Mi-17 "Hip" that looked and felt like it was built in another era -- and was older than the two Pakistani pilots flying it? I can certainly understand the value of unmanned aircraft. Several questions are posed by the increasing proliferation of UAS platforms. How can they be safely integrated into the national airspace system while retaining the operational flexibility and increased training airspace these systems will demand? How might we begin to meet the challenges facing the future of UASs? ... Congressman Bobby Bright, U.S. House of Representatives, 2nd District, AL.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA514859
Entities
People
- Alexis Littlefield
- Chance Saltzman
- Gary Schaub Jr.
- James W. Forsyth Jr.
- Kamal Jabbour
- Phillip M. Mccauley
- Rodger A. Payne
- Sean D. Mcclung
- Shawn T. Cochran
- Xiaoming Zhang
Organizations
- Air University