A US Marine Corps veteran pilot with thousands of hours in the A-4 Skyhawk and the F/A-18 Hornet, Dr. Bill Powers knows more about flying Close Air Support missions than most. Now working at the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities of the Potomac Institute and the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, he’s looking beyond the role of manned aircraft and into the future possibilities of unmanned strike platforms. Here in conversation with Keith Mallon, he discusses the integration of these and other advanced technologies for CAS operations.

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Topics covered include:

• Assessing the current role of UAVs in CAS missions and how this might evolve for future conflicts• Challenges of integrating UAVs within existing force structures and capabilities• Potential for improvement in sharing situational awareness and targeting data across platforms and services• Enhancing NT-ISR capabilities across the Warfighting network so that both air and ground crews can make quicker and better decisions