Lt. Gen. David Deptula, USAF’s intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance guru, has responded to a New York Times article that apparently intimated that USAF wants to “control the deployment of unmanned airplanes,” explaining—as he is doing a lot lately—that the Air Force simply believes it can control costs, end pointless duplication, and improve joint operations by becoming executive agent for unmanned aerial vehicle acquisition. And, Deptula writes that the issue of operational control is separate from that of executive agent and should be handled jointly to distribute intel more widely on the battle area—ground, sea, or air. (Here’s a link to an abstract of the original NYT article; it will cost you to read it now.)
Due to the prolonged delay in deliveries of the Tech Refresh 3 version of the F-35 fighter, Denmark is pulling six of its TR-2-configured F-35 jets stationed in the U.S. back to home base in order to consolidate aircraft and get better training for its pilots and maintainers, the Danish…