By Marina Malenic
The Air Force has not heeded Defense Department instructions to retrofit its MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles with an automatic landing feature, the absence of which has contributed to the loss of a third of the fleet to crash landings, according to a top Pentagon official.
“We’ve lost a third of the Predators, and probably a sixth of…those losses could have been avoided if the Predators had auto-land capability,” outgoing Defense Department weapons buyer John Young told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday.
Since 1994, the Air Force has procured 195 Predators, according to Defense Department spokesman Chris Isleib. Of those, 65 have been lost due to Class A mishaps, he said. Young’s last day was yesterday. His replacement, Ashton Carter, was sworn in yesterday.
A Class A mishap results in damages of $1,000,000 or more.
“Of the 65 mishaps, 36 percent (roughly a third) are human error, many of those attributable to ground station problems,” Isleib said. “Roughly half of those (15 percent of total, or roughly one-sixth of all losses) happened during the landing phase.”
By contrast, Young said, the Army has installed the automated landing system on its MQ-1 Sky Warrior–an upgraded version of the Predator–and has not had the same high attrition rates.
“The Army has lost an almost insignificant fraction [of its drones] because they have auto-land,” he said. “They don’t count on the pilots to land and take off the UAV.”
Young said he has instructed the Air Force to move as quickly as possible to an auto-land capability on all its MQ-1 class UAVs. The service did not, however, heed the direction by requesting funds for the effort in its Fiscal Year 2010 budget request, according to Young.
He has also directed the air service to replace Predators lost to such attrition with Army Warriors.
“It may not surprise you that the Air Force seems to be resisting that idea,” said Young. “They’re saying, ‘Well, we’ll just get out of the Predator business and move to flying [MQ-9] Reapers.'”
However, Young believes a mix of platforms is still needed. He said the department should not phase out MQ-1 purchases for the Air Force.
The Air Force did not reply to requests for comment by press time.