As the Defense Department continues to expand the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), the Army and Air Force need to do a better job of accounting “for the personnel, facilities, and some communications infrastructure to support them,” according to a March 26 report to Congress by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report suggests that DoD, the Army, and the Air Force include “comprehensive planning [in] the decision-making process to field new systems” or expand existing ones, with heavy emphasis on personnel and facilities that would be needed to do so. The Air Force should “establish a milestone for finalizing a near-term plan” to field and continue UAS operations rapidly, the report stated. Other recommendations include an assessment of airspace restrictions on training, more joint training among Army and Air Force UAS personnel, improvement of simulator capabilities, and developing publications that would foster “commonality” among the Army, Navy, and Air Force UAS communities.
