These basic tenets have led to a greater appreciation for the value of timely information. As we reshape our land, sea and air forces to respond quickly and decisively to contingencies, we recognize that global and theater presence requires global and theater awareness. We need to know what is on the battlefield before we get to the battlefield. Beyond force presence, we need virtual advantages attained from extended reconnaissance capabilities and information-based operations.
This nation has an unparalleled recon-naissance capability: the U.S. is the only nation that has the potential to conduct extended reconnaissance strike operations virtually worldwide. The Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO) continues to work with the Services and Joint Staff to mature this capability and to ensure that U.S. forces have the capability to achieve victory for any operational mission -- at any time, and at any place.
As the U.S. transitions into the 21st century, the potential role for UAVs in support of reconnaissance strike operations and peacekeeping contingencies is increasingly evident. Today more than ever, our precision guided munitions (PGMs) need precision reconnaissance for optimal employment. PGMs need precision reconnaissance in order to fully exploit their designed lethality and accuracy potentials. This level of reconnaissance must also be performed over long periods of time, regardless of weather. It must provide information products that are both timely and readily accessible to weapon system operators as well as to commanders. As we strive to attain the Objective Architecture for airborne reconnaissance, the imperative is to provide intelligence and targeting information to warfighters as a basic and timely commodity, not as a "gold watch."
The increasing value of UAVs to support a new class of warfighting needs for extended reconnaissance strike is substantiated by the Joint Warfighting Capability Assessment (JWCA) process under the direction of the Joint Staff. The JWCA process has forged a common set of military requirements that support current and future DoD investments in joint warfighting capabilities, vice disparate Service-unique weapon systems. During the past year, the DARO has actively participated in numerous Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) functional assessments within the JWCA, which routinely recognize the operational benefits of a robust fleet of UAVs. The DARO will continue to play a major role in helping the JWCA's ISR assessors and the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) derive the best cost/benefit solutions for tomorrow's airborne reconnaissance systems.
The promising initial results in deployments and previous exercises suggest UAVs will play an increasingly more important role in both land and maritime operations in the future. UAVs help close the sensor-to-shooter loop by providing the JTF and its components with the technology required to "see" the modern battlefield.J. J. Sheehan
General, U.S. Marine Corps
Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Command
August 1995