Unmanned aircraft have yet to fulfill their initial promise of greater efficiency, according to Tom Clancy, CTO and vice president of Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation. At ASC16, Clancy said “unmanned systems take more people to operate than manned systems.” So, while UAVs have certainly reduced risk to personnel by removing them from the battle space, the next challenge to solve is “how can we deliver on lower cost” by having “more robots do the work of less people,” Clancy said.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.