He answered critics, largely from within his own party, who have complained about its secrecy and questioned its legality. Drones can linger over a target, gather intelligence by pulling in millions of terabytes of data, and they can thereupon launch precisely targeted air strikes without putting a U.S. aircrew at risk.
Yet the scene from “The Godfather,” which has Michael Corleone describing his mafia don father as “no different from other powerful man, any man who’s responsible for other people, like a senator or a president” might cause some second thoughts. Americans would like to believe that an execution ordered by our president is very different from one ordered by a mafia don.
The size of San Diego’s unmanned aerial vehicle industry doubled over the past five years and could double again as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are increasingly used for monitoring U.S. borders and domestic airspace. Defense giant Northrop Grumman of Rancho Bernardo specializes in Global Hawk UAVs. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of Poway is best known for manufacturing Predator UAVs.
If the Pentagon does slow the huge building and deployment program, it won’t affect the CIA drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere against terror suspects. General Mike Hostage, commander of Air Combat Command, said senior leaders are analyzing the military’s drone needs and discussions are beginning. But he said the current number patrolling the skies overseas may be enough. Overall, Pentagon spending on unmanned aircraft has jumped from $284 million in 2000 to nearly $4 billion in the past fiscal year. The growth in investment by the Pentagon has made UAVs the largest single category in San Diego County’s defense contractor sector.
Congress approved legislation that requires the Federal Aviation Administration to have a plan to integrate drones of all kinds into national airspace on a wide scale by 2015. UAVs will soon be used much more extensively by law enforcement and other federal, state and local agencies.
UCSD’s Chancellor, Dr. Pradeep Khosla, has served as adviser to the Aeronautics Committee of NASA, on the Strategy Review Board of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the government of Chinese-Taipei and as Senior Advisory Group for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems. The 183,000-square-foot Structural and Materials Engineering Building “is the future of the university,” Dr. Khosla has said. SME also drew high marks from Linden Blue, co-owner of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.
UCSD has been involved in UAV research for more than a decade, working on such areas as the structural integrity of drones, better propulsion systems and ways to fly them in coordinated packs. “Our challenge in San Diego is access to FAA-approved airspace for flight testing autonomous UAVs,” said John Kosmatka, aerospace and structural engineering professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering.
— Richard Thompson
Alumnus ‘83