Multitasking for UAV pilots?

Air Force Times:

The Air Force wants its airmen who pilot unmanned aerial vehicles to fly more than one of the aircraft at a time, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told defense and military leaders Thursday.

Now, the service flies one MQ-1 Predator with one crew at one ground control station, Schwartz told those who attended a forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Now that is a very Neanderthal way of operating,” he said. “Ideally we’d be able to operate more than one Predator from the same ground station with one crew. That is achievable.”

Schwartz described the operation of multiple UAVs at a time by a single crew as a “turning point” for the service, which wants to continue expanding the role of unmanned aircraft. Already, the Air Force has increased the number of Predator and MQ-9 Reaper orbits it flies over Iraq and Afghanistan from 11 in 2007 to 33 today. The goal is 50 by 2011.

Also on the matter of UAVs, Schwartz suggested an unmanned cargo aircraft might be in the Air Force’s future.

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They are also looking at auto landing for the UAVs. That probably makes some sense.

Flying multiple UAVs is probably doable, but I would think they would need some sort of warning system when the sensors spotted something that should be of interest or when other craft may be in the area. I have seen stories suggesting that the pilots of the UAVs were under a lot of stress, but I have no way of knowing if that is so. If it is, I would think that adding planes would also add stress.