AP News Alert:
WASHINGTON (AP) Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the Air Force is not doing enough to help the Iraq war effort, complaining that some of its leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business."
This seems rather odd... The
AP story has some more detail:
Gates said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth."
However, I think that the AP is trying to make a bigger deal out of this than it is...
He said he has been trying for months to get the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, like the pilotless Predator drone that provides real-time surveillance video, to the battlefield.
"Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it's been like pulling teeth," Gates said. "While we've doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough."
This is about the Air Force leadership wanting to make sure that the manned flight programs are still top dog. Those programs are important, but we are in need to pilotless drone programs too. I suspect that there is some politics going on here...
