Manned airborne ISR still crucial to USAF

摘要

The US is using both manned and unmanned aircraft to perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) over conflict zones such as Iraq, a top US Air Force (USAF) official said on 29 July. "There is a love affair out there in the non-aviation world with the concept of the unmanned platform, but I really need the human in that loop, and tightly in the loop in a way I have it in a non-traditional ISR platform," said General Mike Hostage, the chief of USAF Air Combat Command. For example, the USAF is monitoring hostilities in Iraq using manned combat aircraft equipped with targeting pods in addition to its unmanned assets, the general said. He did not specify which platforms were in use.