Blackwater Airships Fill ISR Need

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has described the military's appetite for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) collection, including video from unmanned aerial vehicles, as “insatiable.”

But the Air Force Times reports that “the Army and Air Force can’t seem to keep up.... Gates described getting the military to provide more airborne ISR as 'pulling teeth,' even though the number of Predator orbits — or continuous 24-hour patrols — have doubled in theater since last year.”

And that's where Blackwater comes in. The company's new Polar 400 airships can fly twice as long as Air Force Predators and cost just a fifth as much. “In the past, airships have proven ineffective because they were susceptible to weather, especially high winds,” Air Force Times explains. “Blackwater designed a propulsion system so the pilot can control the airship on all three axes.”

True, the airships won't carry Hellfire missiles like some UAVs currently in use, but the airships are perfect for loitering over a dozen city blocks for up to 60 hours at a time, just the sort of coverage our men in uniform often need when they find themselves in difficult urban warfare.

Blackwater founder and CEO Erik Prince “also suggested his airships could replace Predators flying drug and alien interdiction missions over the US-Mexico border and the Caribbean. He proposed using one ship as a 'lily-pad' and launching three to four airships to form a chain.”


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In spite of the obvious advantages that Blackwater airships offer to the military - both in terms of filling the ISR gap and doing so at a lower cost - certain critics are not keen on the idea. Air Force Times quoted Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., as saying “Now we’re talking about a private, for-profit company having grandiose notions of replacing the Coast Guard and the Navy,” she said. “I think that’s very dangerous.”

Ms. Schakowsky, were you paying any attention at all? We're talking about ISR collection, not the complete functions of both the Navy and the Coast Guard.

Maybe Congresswoman Schakowsky is confusing ISR with the IRS, which busted her felon husband for bank fraud tax evasion.

Rice, Gates, Petraeus "quite satisfied" with PSCs

The Associated Press reports that in joint Congressional testimony Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Bob Gates expressed their confidence in the work that private security contractors (PSCs) are doing in Iraq. Gates said General David Petraeus, Commanding General of Multi-National Force Iraq, was "quite satisfied with the arrangement that exists today" between PSCs and the government. Rice agreed. "I do think we've come to a good modus vivendi."

Pentagon Confirms Contractor Accountability

In a memo dated March 10, Secretary of Defense Bill Gates (pictured) reiterated the accountability of US private security contractors to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He writes:

On October 17, 2006, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) was amended to extend UCMJ jurisdiction over persons serving with or accompanying US armed forces in the field.... Since then, commanders have had avaliable this additional UCMJ disciplinary authority.

The unique nature of this extended UCMJ jurisdiction over civilians requires sound management over when, where and by whom such jurisdiction is exercised. There is a particular need for clarity regarding the legal framework that should govern a command response to any illegal activities by Department of Defense civilian employees and DoD contractor personnel overseas with our Armed Forces.

This latest memo from Secretary Gates does precisely that, clarifying once again that PSCs like Blackwater are accountable to the military when serving with it.

State Department review panel keeps open mind

A State Department panel to review the use of private security contractors has faulted the department for poor coordination and oversight, but reached no conclusion about Blackwater.

AP reports that the panel is keeping all options open, pending the conclusion of an FBI review. Once the FBI report is completed, the US Embassy in Baghdad, in the words of the panel, should assess "whether the continued services of the contractor involved is consistent with the accomplishment of the overall mission in Iraq."

Secretary of State Condolezza Rice has already ordered some interim changes in how the private diplomatic security service contractors are administered and overseen. Blackwater had requested at least one of those changes in 2005, but State Department lawyers denied the request.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to come up with additional changes to ensure that Blackwater's aggressive security services for the State Department do not conflict with the softer counterinsurgency efforts instituted earlier this year by Gen. David Petraeus.