Report urges Navy to push unmanned flight envelope

On Dec. 6, 1941, the Navy had been experimenting for years with aircraft carriers and warplanes but still wasn’t sure what role they would play in future naval battles.

A day later, Japanese bombers launched from aircraft carriers laid waste to much of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and the Navy knew that its future sea battles would largely be fought by planes, not battleships.

Now the Navy is faced with another possible turning point in combat strategy and tactics: unmanned combat aircraft. Two respected defense analysts say that, unlike in the years before World War II, the Navy is moving too slowly to explore the uses of this potentially revolutionary technology.

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