Ten Thousand Feet and Ten Thousand Miles: Reconciling Our Air Force Culture to Remotely Piloted Aircraft and the New Nature of Aerial Combat.

摘要

Heavy fire from a DShK .50-caliber machine gun pins down a team of Navy SEALs. Outnumbered and outgunned, the team has one lifeline the aircraft on the other end of their joint terminal attack controller s radio. The aircraft lies well outside the range of any of the insurgents weapons, but that thought doesn t cross the mind of the pilot as he focuses solely on his comrades, who do not enjoy the same luxury. Lightning quick, a GBU-12 puts the DShK out of commission. Two minutes later, missiles from the striker make short work of a group of insurgents trying to flank the team. No longer pinned, the SEALs return fire, and the adversary falls back. Once the dust settles, the friendlies make their way back to the exfiltration site.3 When the tale is told, the actions of the aircrew made the difference between life and death for the brave members of this special operations force. By far the most important part of this story is the knowledge that the good guys came home safe. Still, we could tell this same story with the crew of either an F-15E Strike Eagle or an MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) as the protagonists. In the former case, our institutions would likely herald the crew s heroism with decorations, yet in the latter case, the same institutions would remind the crew that their efforts do not even qualify as combat time. The urgent needs of combat led to the explosive growth of RPAs, but the people who meet those needs hear that they are not in combat. This contradiction deserves a response.