Insatiable Desire for ISR

The Air Force has increased its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability by more than 4,000 percent in the last 10 years, said Lt. Gen. Larry James, deputy chief of staff for ISR at the Pentagon. Today’s airmen fly about 1,500 hours of airborne ISR missions every day across the globe, and the Air Force’s ISR assets gather more than a thousand hours of full-motion video each day, he said during an AFA-sponsored Air Force Breakfast Program speech in Arlington, Va., on April 26. He noted that MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft are approaching 1.5 million combat hours flown in support of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. “Pretty impressive,” said James. He added, “Your Air Force has been all in, in terms of pushing ISR capabilities into this fight.” (For more coverage of James’ address, read Stress Relief and Targeting Atrophy.)