House Lawmaker Sees Small Drones as Solution to Retirement of Military Ships, Aircraft

Rep. Rob Wittman has urged the U.S. military to consider the use of small, inexpensive unmanned systems to fill the capability gaps that may emerge between the time when old systems retire and when the services fully rebuild their inventory.

The House Armed Services Committee has agreed to retire old ships and aircraft due to federal spending caps for fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025, according to Wittman, who chairs the committee’s tactical air and land forces panel.

He said during an interview with Defense News that small unmanned systems could address the issue because they are inexpensive, easy to build, attritable and “can be very, very capable,” C4ISRNET reported.

The lawmaker went on to note that risk-taking in the development of such platforms is more tolerable because of their affordability.

He also said he favored the development of platforms that specialize in a specific mission rather than being capable of multiple roles.