Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England has halted the U.S. Air Force's controversial push to take over management of the Pentagon's growing Unmanned Air System (UAS) fleet.

USAF Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley made the proposal in a March 5 memo to take over management of all Pentagon UAS programs. It was met with ire from officials in the Army and Navy (DAILY, March 26).

Moseley had proposed to consolidate operational control of UASs flying over 3,500 feet (including Army and special operations tactical UAS) under the control of a regional Air Force officer. The Army, in particular, fought against this proposal, arguing that such a leadership shift is perilous to take on while operations continue in Iraq and Afghanistan and that their commanders must maintain operational control over their UAS to ensure freedom to maneuver in battle.

England does retain one of the proposals that came out of the debate in Washington over the executive agency role. The Air Force promised about 10 percent in savings if its Predator and the Army's Warrior programs were merged. Congress has put pressure on the Pentagon to merge the efforts.

Predator merger

Predator and Sky Warrior are the only programs directly mentioned in his Sept. 13 memo to the services and civilian Pentagon offices. "The Predator and Sky Warrior programs will be combined into a single acquisition program, to include a common data link, in order to achieve common development, procurement, sustainment and training activities," England says. The contract merger should be complete by October 2008, he says. England does not suggest which service should lead this effort.

In lieu of forming an executive agency in the Air Force, England directs that an interagency task force will address how to promote interoperability and efficient operations of UASs.

This decision also relieves the Navy of concerns that the Air Force could subsume oversight of its high-dollar UAS contracts - including the Unmanned Combat Air System-Demonstrator recently awarded to Northrop Grumman and a soon-to-be-decided Broad Area Maritime Surveillance contract.