As per to one of the U.S. executives at Abu Dhabi’s IDEX (International Defence Exhibition & Conference), “China has been selling its drones” to militaries in the Gulf countries like those of the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The US’ top security associate regarding this stated that presently they do not provide them with its armed drone technology owing to stern export policies. Lt. General Charles Hooper—Director of the Pentagon’s DSCA (Defense Security Cooperation Agency)—highlighted changes happening to the CAT (Conventional Arms Transfer) policy, which has so far prevented the sale of equipped drones to Washington’s Gulf allies.
At the conference, Hooper told to media, “As a part of the changes to the CAT regulation, we have analyzed and are in the process of executing changes to our procedure with respect to uncrewed aerial systems. We want to make many of our uncrewed aerial systems obtainable to our associates. Several of them are been demanding for some time, we are going to go forward as soon as possible.” Those systems that Gulf associates have wanted comprises the fatal MQ-9 Reaper are created by General Atomics, which is a defense contractor company. Reportedly, General Atomics has created a hunter-killer drone that could carry a maximum of four Hellfire missiles plus JDAMs (joint direct attack munitions) and laser-guided bombs.
Similarly, recently, the Pentagon was in news for pitching Space Force plan to doubtful lawmakers. Starting in the next week, Pentagon executives will discuss with members of Congress and employees to go over the particulars of how the Pentagon will organize the USSF (United States Space Force) in the DAF (Department of the Air Force). To turn Trump’s Space Force proposal into reality, the Pentagon would require strong bipartisan backing from both the chambers.
