Word: grounded
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Until recently, the Air Force hierarchy had insisted that the men and women "flying" its MQ-1 Predator drones be full-fledged pilots, even as they kept their feet firmly on the ground in Nevada. But General Norton Schwartz, tapped as the service's chief of staff last year by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, felt assigning such rated pilots to drones made little sense after spending $1 million and up to 18 months to train each...
...tradition of military innovators. "When the steamship, the tank and, yes, the aircraft were introduced for military application, institutional disorder resulted," the Air Force's top commander explained, noting that the boosters of these new technologies had been derided as "zealots." Those piloting drones from electronic consoles on the ground, he conceded, have "encountered the same sort of resistance, even in our own Air Force...
...reached the 500,000-hour mark just 20 months later. The Air Force currently runs 37 Predator "orbits" 24/7 over Afghanistan and Iraq, which requires about 150 personnel, as many as 10 pairs of pilots and sensor operators and four Predators. While their most important mission is to provide ground troops with real-time video for hours on end, the Predator crews can also fire missiles when high-value targets are identified. (Read "Flying Air Force Drones: Pilots No Longer Required...
...sense and all that aeronautical decision-making down pat." While he has never had to fire a missile in anger, he knows that is likely to change once he begins his new assignment. "I'm going to be there to help the men and women on the ground who are risking their lives," he says. "It lets them see who's around the corner...
...chance of our simply pulling out of Afghanistan. That option isn't even on the White House table, despite growing public desire to end the war. The true aim of the hawks, or all-outers, in this maneuver is to discredit the real policy alternative - the middle ground. Their ploy is to portray the middle way as simply a cover for getting out. (See pictures of Gitmo detainees...