Defense Firm's Global Warming Solution: More Drones
Executives at defense behemoth Northrop Grumman are worried about climate change. The solution? Build a "global change monitoring system" -- and buy more Global Hawk surveillance drones.
In a speech yesterday at an aerospace symposium in Maryland, Robert Burke, vice president of Civil Systems for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector, noted that the younger generation, with their "blogs" and their "twitters," are already aware of melting polar ice caps and the latest in solar technology. Now it's time for the grownups to get on board.
Abso-effing-lootely beautiful, man."As the rate of global change accelerates and budgets are squeezed, we in industry and government must change our perspective," he said. "The mind-set that makes us stick with what we know, our comfort zone, cannot last. We must strive to develop innovative concepts for Earth sensing - utilizing new platform opportunities and new instrument architectures and technology."
Specifically, Burke called for using more pilotless aircraft in Earth observation missions. The latest unmanned aerial vehicles, he argued, can offer wider coverage than geosynchronous or polar-orbiting satellites, and they can be customized to carry payloads that monitor climate change, collect atmospheric data or perform disaster assessment after storms.
Everyone wants in on the buck.
It's all baloney on parade.
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