Report: US Military Could Save Billions of Dollars By Doing This One Thing

Dave Majumdar

Security,

Think semi-autonomous unmanned combat aircraft.

A new report from the Center for a New American Security suggests that the U.S. Navy—and indeed the other military services—could save tens of billions of dollars by adopting semi-autonomous unmanned combat aircraft. Money would be saved because the Pentagon would not need to buy as many planes, nor would unmanned systems have to fly as many flight hours for training purposes. Moreover, it would afford the Navy a way to extend the reach of its carrier air wing so that naval aviation could strike deep into the heart of heavily defended enemy territory.

“The cost savings are just tremendous,” said Paul Scharre, one of the authors of the study and director of the 20YY Future of Warfare Initiative at the Center for a New American Security.

According to the study, the cost savings estimates top $100 billion. In fact, under the most optimistic scenario, the savings could range between $95 billion and $170 billion while a more moderate case it might mean savings of between $80 billion and $140 billion. Under the most modest case scenario, the savings range between $30 billion and $54 billion.

Scharre makes the argument that when a “pilot” or drone operator “flies” an unmanned aerial vehicle, the human is only really making macro-level decisions rather than directly flying the machine—particularly in more advanced drones. Basically, even if the pilots were to maintain their proficiency in simulators only, it would make little difference to that operator. As far as that operator were concerned, the input or data coming into the simulator would be identical whether the drone as simulated, flying over Southern California or flying over Iraq. “It may be indistinguishable to the operator,” Scharre said. “They might not even know.”

That means that the Pentagon could save huge sums of money because pilots would not need to fly to maintain currency or fly peacetime training missions. Only a few aircraft would be needed to retain the skills of maintenance crews for operations at home station. The rest of the aircraft could be deployed for operational usage.