DOT&E Director, Michael Gilmore, discusses testing for RQ-21A Blackjack, MQ-1C Gray Eagle, MQ-9 Reaper, MQ-4C Triton, and RQ-4 Global Hawk in FY 2015 Annual Report.Unmanned aerial vehicles, from large, long range aircraft to small tactical drones, have been a reliable tool for the military for years, but they still have weaknesses, according to the annual report to Congress by J. Michael Gilmore, director of the Defense Department’s office of Operational Test & Evaluation (OT&E). Here’s a summary of what OT&E had to say about some of the military’s most common UAVs.RQ-21A Blackjack – The report was extremely blunt in its assessments of the catapult-launched Blackjack used by both the Navy and Marine Corps. According to the report, Marine Corps commanders use the Blackjack to ashore units with ISR capabilities. In the initial operational test and evaluation report, from June 2015, OT&E concluded that the Blackjack was adequate and used in accordance with an approved test plan, but was not operationally effective or operationally suitable, and…DOT&E FY 2015 Annual Report:http://www.dote.osd.mil/pub/reports/FY2015/pdf/other/2015DOTEAnnualRepor…
