Developing a UAV concept of operations

As the number of UAVs in military service — and the number and variety of their roles and missions — increase, there is a growing need for coordination among the serrvices using them and for an overall concept of operation to guide the use of these systems. Army and Air Force leaders met Monday to discuss developing a new joint unmanned aerial system concept of operations. “As opposed to finding independent solutions, we are trying to find joint, collaborative solutions that best support the joint warfighter in any spectrum of war,” said Air Force Gen. John Corley, head of Air Combat Command. Corley met with Gen. William Wallace, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, and Lt. Gen. Michael Vane, director of the Army Capabilities and Integration Center. The meeting at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia., emphasized developing unmanned aerial system operations for the full spectrum of conflict — from centralized major combat operations to smaller-scale decentralized operations to include stability operations. Monday’s discussion follows dialogue over the past several months in which a joint Army-Air Force team has worked to identify current and future UAS requirements. In January the chiefs of staff for the Army and Air Force, along with other senior leaders, met to discuss issues of mutual interest regarding interoperability.

From that January meeting, a memorandum was signed to formalize existing arrangements between the Army and Air Force which have been developed over the course of the war on terrorism. The two services also agreed to develop a process to identify and address equipment interoperability issues, including the development of a UAS concept of operations that would lay the foundation for acquisition, airspace, air defense, force structure and organizational strategies. “The environment we are operating in today, and what we expect to see tomorrow, has changed dramatically over the past few years,” said Wallace. “Taking a joint approach on UAS issues will allow us to rapidly develop force capabilities from concept and capability development through employment by identifying, linking and synchronizing all of our activities, so we can give the best capability to joint warfighters who are fighting a very elusive, thinking and adaptive adversary.”
The approach will include doctrine, organizations, training, leader development, materiel, personnel and facilities, officials said. “We need to have the ability to support full levels of joint operations from air-only major campaigns all the way down to counter-insurgency operations,” said U.S. Air Force Maj.