Congress is rapidly losing patience with the inter-service dispute over the USAF's bid to become the Pentagon's "executive agent" for medium and high-altitude UAVs. Army Times reports that the chairman of the House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee, Rep.Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, "promised to settle the differences if the services don't". (Tip credit - Evan Sweetman.) According to the paper, Abercrombie told the service leaders that "I can make arbitrary decisions," and what's really scary is that he is in a position to do so.
No doubt those decisions will be based on Abercrombie's extensive UAV-related experience, including his degree in sociology, doctorate in American Studies, career in academia and 33 years as an elected official in Hawaii and in Congress. Perhaps those decisions will be better than the last-but-one time that Congress intervened in UAV development, which nearly strangled the Predator in its crib - fortunately, the CIA ignored Congress and funded the program in secret. With luck, though, the sepulchral voice saying "I'm from Congress, and I'm here to help" will frighten the services into taking action.
--Bill Sweetman
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