Expensive tastes: how the military has spent years gold-plating itself out of a cheap and effective unmanned aircraft - that could save lives - unmanned aerial vehicle

Washington Monthly, June, 1997 by Adam Piore

Another UAV in development, the stealthy "DarkStar" has also had difficulties. The DarkStar is designed to penetrate and operate in the presence of high-threat air defense system. Unlike Outrider, it is intended to fly at altitudes greater than 45,000 feet and is being designed to travel distances of up to 500 nautical miles. The Darkstar crashed on its second flight test last year. But Pentagon officials say they understand the cause of the problem and flight testing is slated to resume this September.

And, with the aforementioned Predator, the military seems finally to have hit the mark. Like DarkStar, Predator is also a long-range UAV with the ability to fly 500 nautical miles. It too can hover over a tar-get for more than 20 hours. The Pentagon has now purchased 13 Predator systems with 80 air vehicles for $368 million. Despite some questions about its ability to fly in bad weather, the system has received rave reviews from many military experts and reportedly performed well in Bosnia. In short, there is ground for cautious optimism.

But while the success of Predator is good news, it was a long time coming. The military would do well to take note of the obvious lesson: For far too long, spending money took precedence over developing a viable system that could save lives.