Tag Archives: david deptula

Air Force to Cancel Blue Devil Airship

The Air Force has issued a “stop work” on the airship known as the Blue Devil, which was to be an “optionally manned surveillance” dirigible.  This is interpreted as the lead-in to the demise of the program.

The Blue Devil 2 was considered to be a herald of next-generation persistent intelligence collection with a potential endurance of more than nine days. Depending on the duration of the mission, the airship would have been able to carry 2,500 pounds of surveillance equipment for five days, or 7,500 pounds if the sortie was shortened to three days.

The CEO of Mav6, Blue Devils’ creator, is David Deptula — formerly LtGen Deptula, deputy chief of staff for ISR and an unusually fervent advocate for UAVs.  It seems he found his civilian calling. The Navy was also researching similar airships.  In an interesting bit of timing, their program just got extended.

The cancellation may render moot Michael Weinstein’s likely offense at the religious reference in the aircraft’s name…

UAV Pilots to Outnumber Fighter/Bomber Pilots

The Washington Post picks up on the news mentioned a few months ago that the Air Force will train more unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) pilots this year than fighter or bomber pilots.  (The Post gets the headline wrong; the comparison is not to all pilots, as it does not include cargo, transport, or other airframes.)  General Stephen Lorenz, commander of the Air Education and Training Command, repeated the comment last Friday.

In an interesting conclusion to the article, Lt. Gen. David Deptula, Air Force deputy chief of staff for ISR, commented:

Will the unmanned aircraft ever completely replace either bombers or fighters? In delivering weapons on target, Deptula said, “Yes, you bet.” But when it comes to controlling airspace, flying against enemy fighters, the general said, the technology cannot yet achieve 360-degree awareness. A human brain is still superior in the assimilation of information and responding to it.