By Bob Brewin Wednesday, June 20, 2007 05:57 PM
Though the Air Force has used a wide range of manned and unmanned aircraft to try to locate improvised explosive devices -- the single largest cause of casualties to U.S. forces in Iraq -- a top Air Force commander bluntly sums up that approach as a waste of effort and resources.
Gen. Ronald Keys, speaking in Virginia Beach, Va., at the Transformation Warfare Conference sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute, said that the Air Force had deployed assets ranging from large surveillance aircraft to unmanned aerial vehicles, based on a “hazy feeling” from commanders that such aviation assets would help counter IEDs.
But Keys said he viewed this approach as a “waste of assets.” Keys said flying F-16 fighters or Predator drones over roads in Iraq would not help located IEDs, because “there’s just too much junk” buried all over the country, and they can’t sort it out from actual bombs.
http://blogs.govexec.com/techinsider/archives/2007/06/air_force_commander_stop_looki.html
