Bandwidth-starved military spyplane chiefs are resorting to the use
of humans as airborne data-processing nodes, according to reports.
Difficulties in deployment of unmanned robot surveillance craft have
led to the purchase of basic civilian planes for use in intelligence
work above Iraq and Afghanistan.
For years now, ground commanders fighting elusive enemies in
Southwest Asia have been begging for more and more long-endurance
overhead surveillance, particularly that provided by the well-known
Predator and Predator-B/Reaper Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs).
Yes, that one is pretty funny looking
Initially, problems in delivering more video and groundscan radar
imagery were seen as following from foot-dragging by the air force.
Generals were reluctant to draft jet jockeys into hated shift duties on
the ground, piloting roboplanes by remote over satellite hookups from
America. That logjam was resolved at least in part by sacking the boss
of the US air force - his replacement has pledged to send pilots into
drone duties straight from training if that's what it takes.
After that, continued slow ramp-up of the drone fleets was blamed on
demand outstripping supply - there are other customers for UAVs than
the military, including the CIA* and homeland-security authorities -
and failures by one of the main roboplane makers, General Atomics, to
scale up its manufacturing base swiftly enough.
In any case, more and more talk has been heard this year on the
stateside spyplane beat of "Project Liberty" - a cheap-and-cheerful
push to get more surveillance birds into the Southwest Asian skies in a
hurry. The plan is to buy ordinary civilian twin-engine planes and fit
them out with the lightweight sensors used by UAVs. They would of
course need pilots, but in fact so do the current Predator and Reaper.
The only difference is that these pilots would need to be physically in
the aircraft.
This Tuesday, indeed, saw an order for 23 Beechcraft King Air 350
extended-range models for the US air force 645th Aeronautical Systems
Group, aka "Big Safari", a famous secretive spyplane and
electronic-trickery unit. King Airs are a very popular plane for
clandestine spy work, oft-used by shadowy American and allied spy/intel
and spec-ops projects and units over the years with a variety of mad
equipment fitted.
Indeed, the King Air is so popular for this kind of job that there's
a generic term for a spyplane-modded one. It is Funny Looking King Air
(FLKA), as used by the doyen of secret-plane journalism, Bill Sweetman
of Aviation Week....
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