| Not long ago, our Internet style think tank was | | | | size, and yet another a micro-unmanned aerial vehicle |
| having a discussion about an idea which has been | | | | or MAV. So, which units should they choose? |
| floated amongst the top military brass on streamlining | | | | Simple, they can buy any unit from any defense |
| the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or UAS | | | | contractor provided it is the one with the largest |
| (Unmanned Aerial Systems) platforms amongst all | | | | Lobbying budget for the Congress and Senate. You |
| branches of the military; Coast Guard, Navy, Marines, | | | | see, our Think Tank needs to be rational and bring a |
| Air Force, and Army to save billions of dollars without | | | | reality check to the whole thing. To pretend |
| duplicating programs. | | | | otherwise would simply be lying about how things |
| Whereas, this might sound like a good idea, and as | | | | really work in Washington DC, you know, in the real |
| soon as they do, NASA, USDA Forest Service, | | | | world! Perhaps, you are going to take my article as |
| NOAA, DHS, CIA, etc, etc, can all buy from the | | | | cynical, but that isn't the point. |
| same pool at a discounted price due to economies of | | | | We need the best equipment and the best price for |
| scale and large quantity pricing. | | | | our military to protect our nation. Sometimes that is |
| Okay so, whereby the idea has merit, which UAVs | | | | the company with the best lobbying fire-power, and |
| should they use? Well, they will want small, medium, | | | | well, sometimes it's not. When it's not, well, that |
| and large UAVs for their different uses. One platform | | | | concerns me. Please consider all this, although I doubt |
| would be a long-range and large unit, another would | | | | it will change anything. |
| be a smaller size, another would be a model aircraft | | | | |