Publisher's Synopsis
The purpose of this book is to examine future policy options for developing Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) as tankers to perform the air-refueling (AR) mission against RPA receivers. It utilizes a Delphi methodology to obtain input from a panel of experts and senior military leaders. A three-round Delphi targeted a panel of five experts to brainstorm ideas, rate these ideas, and finally determine consensus. A separate standalone round targeted six senior leaders (SL); the questioning in this round was identical to the expert panel's second round and was intended to draw in SLs while minimizing their time requirements. Ultimately, of the 43 ideas generated by the expert panel during the initial round, 46.5% reached consensus within the expert panel in a direction other than a neutral opinion. In contrast, the SL round found intersections of consensus on only 16.3% of the ideas in a direction other than neutral. Thus, this book produces clear direction for future development, as well as identifying areas requiring more focus to achieve consensus.
