L-Re · Incidental Research

The Gate Is Not the Campaign

# The Gate Is Not the Campaign

*Wasp III's Recited BATMAV Award, MQ-9 Stores-Management Release Testing, Seven Named Reapers, and Predator Language Without U.S. Admission*

**Prepared as a capability analysis**
Platform: Quiet Systems

---

> **Research premise.** December 2006 closes two U.S. program gates — AeroVironment's Wasp III selected for the Air Force Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Air Vehicle program, and the MQ-9 stores-management subsystem beginning weapons-release testing — and still does not close initial operational capability. The trust object is not the airframe. It is whether a later-recited award and a GAO-dated test are the campaign a Watch desk would log as fielded.

## Abstract

**Research premise.** A year-end defense headline reduces December 2006 to two closed gates and a stack of 2006 access changes: a one-pound micro air vehicle becomes a program of record; a hunter-killer's last critical technology enters release test; a named Reaper sits at seven airframes in early fielding; Damadola puts "Predator" into mainstream Pakistani-strike copy; a Shenzhen company is founded. Read as a trust problem it is one gate event. An Air Force fact sheet later dated 1 November 2007 states that AeroVironment was awarded the Wasp III contract in December 2006 after competition, that the Air Force took delivery of its initial system in 2007, and that the air vehicle is a one-pound, 28.5-inch, approximately $49,000 (2006 dollars) micro UAS for Air Force Special Operations Command Battlefield Airmen. A 20 November 2007 AeroVironment Form 8-K and attached release recite a five-year Air Force ID/IQ awarded in December 2006, a Marine Corps $19.3 million order through that vehicle, and the claim that Wasp III is "the first micro air vehicle to be adopted by the U.S. armed forces in support of a program of record." The December 2006 Commerce Business Daily or award notice itself was not fetched. A March 2007 Government Accountability Office assessment, recited on the fetched GlobalSecurity MQ-9 chronology, states that the stores-management subsystem "began weapons release testing in December 2006," two years after it was initially expected to be mature, after a delay from incorporating Hellfire. The same chronology records no 2006 combat mission and no 2006 initial operational capability; first Creech delivery is 13 March 2007. A 14 September 2006 Air Force naming, reprinted the same day by Dow Jones, puts seven MQ-9s in inventory and a full-rate production decision in 2009. A May 2007 GAO ISR report, used here only as the fetched primary for the planned gate, states that Reaper "entered systems development in February 2004" and that "its initial operating capability is planned for 2009." Three Federally Administered Tribal Areas attribution fights — Nek Mohammed in June 2004, Damadola in January 2006, Chenagai in October 2006 — produce three official partner lines that are not "U.S. UAV" and increasing local and media UAV language. No 2006 U.S. on-the-record campaign speech was fetched. The products are a recited micro-UAS buy without a fetched December notice, a hunter-killer test without a campaign, a name and a lot-count without IOC, and a public Predator hypothesis without U.S. admission. The December award notice, a contemporaneous stores-management test report, a 2006 combat orbit, and an admitted Pakistan campaign are not fetched; those Unknowns are not safe defaults.

_Keywords: unmanned aircraft systems, Wasp III, BATMAV, MQ-9 Reaper, stores management, initial operational capability, Damadola, AeroVironment, Passport, Control Fabric, Sense-Move-Act_

## 1. Introduction: The Apparent Recap

A defense-industrial headline reduces December 2006 to a stack of closings: the Air Force buys a one-pound platoon camera; the hunter-killer's last critical technology enters weapons-release test; a named Reaper sits at seven airframes; a Bajaur village puts Predator into the copy; a Shenzhen firm is founded. A reader who treats those as five events expects a highlight reel. The contemporaneous public record does not make that calculation. It describes two program gates that later official texts place in December, a hunter-killer that has a name and a lot-count and does not have initial operational capability, and a remote-strike campaign that can run for two and a half years in public as a rumor.1

The disparity is easiest to misunderstand when the month is read as a recap. Under that reading, Wasp III becomes a micro-UAS first, stores-management a weapons milestone, Reaper a fielded hunter-killer, Damadola a drone war, and DJI a commercial seed. Later memory then supplies a Commerce Business Daily notice, a test-range serial, a Creech combat orbit, a U.S. admission, and a Phantom that December's opened file does not contain as 31 December facts. The opened December file runs the other way. The object is the gate: a later-recited award whose December notice was not fetched, a GAO-dated test that is not a campaign, a name that is not IOC, and a public Predator word that is not an admitted service.

This distinction matters. Capability analysis can target what a system can perceive, who may command it, and whether the evidence chain would let a later operator trust the path from sensor to act. Political-economy analysis asks whether a program-of-record award and a critical-technology test are still properties of a fielded platoon and a combat orbit — or something a later 8-K and a March GAO page can hold without those properties. December 2006 answers that question more cleanly than it answers hours over a special-operations patch or sorties from a named desert base. The Air Force selected. Stores-management began release test. The hunter-killer was named. The campaign stayed empty.

The argument developed here is that the gate is not the campaign, and that the trust failure is dual: award plus test. BATMAV is a recited buy without a fetched December notice and without a December delivery. MQ-9 stores-management is a December test without a December weapon and without IOC. Reaper is a name and seven airframes without a 2006 combat orbit. Damadola is mainstream Predator language without U.S. admission. LrrK's objects earn their place only where they keep those plates separate. Sibling files on 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 are not rebuilt.

## 2. A Recited Award for a One-Pound Air Vehicle

The first public plate is a later official recitation, not a December Commerce Business Daily. An Air Force fact sheet, published 1 November 2007 and fetched from a later archive of the service page, states the award month in one sentence: "Aerovironment Inc. was awarded the contract in December 2006 after competing against a number of candidate systems. The Air Force took delivery of its initial system in 2007." The mission sentence is special operations, not a general-purpose fleet. "The Air Force's Wasp III small unmanned aircraft system provides real-time direct situational awareness and target information for Air Force Special Operations Command Battlefield Airmen. The Wasp-III falls into the class of Air Force small unmanned aircraft systems known as micro UAS." The need sentence is beyond-line-of-sight for combat controllers and tactical air control party Airmen.2

The air vehicle the fact sheet puts on the page is small enough to be mistaken for a toy and priced as a system. Wingspan 28.5 inches. Length 10 inches. Air-vehicle weight one pound. Total-system weight 14.4 pounds. Speed 20 to 40 miles per hour. Operating altitude 150 to 500-plus feet. System cost "approximately $49,000 (2006 dollars)." Payload "high resolution, day/night camera." Power is an electric motor and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The system "features the expendable air vehicle, a ground control unit and communications ground station" and "can function autonomously from takeoff to recovery, or be controlled by one operator using a handheld remote control unit." Those sentences are facts about what the later fact sheet printed. They are not a 31 December 2006 delivery, and they are not a fetched December award notice.3

Honesty requires four labels on the fact-sheet plate. Fact: a later Air Force page dates the AeroVironment award to December 2006 after competition; initial delivery is 2007; the air vehicle is a one-pound, 28.5-inch micro UAS at approximately $49,000 in 2006 dollars; the stated customer is Air Force Special Operations Command Battlefield Airmen; the class is micro UAS. Inference, moderate: December 2006 is the award month in a later official recitation, not a month whose Commerce Business Daily or FedBizOpps notice was opened here. Judgment: platoon-level video became a buy on paper; it did not become a December service. Unknown: the December 2006 award notice; the dollar value of that Air Force award; the named competing systems; any December delivery.

A Watch desk that records only "Wasp won BATMAV" has already lost the object. AeroVironment is the manufacturer. BATMAV is the program of record. The Passport event is a recited award whose enforcement, in the fetched file, is a 2007 fact sheet, not a December notice. Treating the later recitation as proof that a December daily-contracts paragraph exists, or as proof that Battlefield Airmen already held the system on 31 December, is a judgment the opened file does not support.

## 3. What a Later 8-K and Marine Order Restated

The second public plate is a November 2007 securities filing, used here as later restatement of the December vehicle, not as a December order. On 20 November 2007 AeroVironment filed a Form 8-K dated to an 19 November event. "On November 19, 2007, AeroVironment, Inc. (AV) was awarded a $19.3 million order by the U.S. Marine Corps for Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Air Vehicle (BATMAV) systems, spares and support services. Each BATMAV system consists of two Wasp III micro air vehicles, a ground control system, and operators kit." The next paragraph is the December sentence this paper needs: "The Marine Corps will procure the BATMAV systems through a five-year indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract awarded to AV by the U.S. Air Force in December 2006 to acquire and field BATMAV systems to meet the small unit's need for real-time reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition and battle damage assessment. The contract provides for purchases of up to $45 million over the term of the contract, including procurement of micro air vehicle integration efforts, AV's Wasp III micro air vehicle, ground control systems, initial spares, training and sustainment under the Air Force Beyond Line of Site (BLOS) program of record." Development and integration "was completed under a cost-plus fixed-fee arrangement in October 2007." A November 2007 memorandum of agreement let the Marines buy through the Air Force vehicle. The Marine order "brings the total current funded value of the BATMAV contract to $22.6 million."4

The attached 20 November 2007 release hardens the architecture. "The U.S. Air Force selected Wasp III as the micro UAS for its BATMAV program." Wingspan is given as 29 inches — a one-half-inch split from the fact sheet's 28.5 — "weighing only one pound," carrying "one infrared and two color cameras that transmit streaming video directly to the hand-held ground controller." "Wasp III is the first micro air vehicle to be adopted by the U.S. armed forces in support of a program of record." The Marine basis of issue is the month's Move sentence. "The Marine Corps plans to issue Wasp III systems to the battalion for deployment at the platoon level, representing a basis of issue that is lower in the force structure than that of AV's Raven small unmanned aircraft system." The order "followed a successful Marine Corps evaluation of Wasp systems provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA." Maj. James Roudebush, identified as Tier I UAV program manager, PMA-263, said the small size and light weight made Wasp "ideally suited for deployment directly to platoons." John Grabowsky, AeroVironment unmanned-aircraft executive, called Wasp III "the emerging micro UAS solution."5

A 3 January 2008 AeroVironment release, used here only as a further later recitation of the December selection and not as a December 2006 gate, stated that BATMAV had received Milestone C and full-rate-production authorization "in just over 11 months from contract award" and repeated that "the Air Force selected AV's Wasp III as the micro air vehicle (MAV) for its BATMAV Program in December 2006." Milestone C is a 2008 event. It is not back-dated.6

Honesty requires four labels on the 8-K plate. Fact: Form 8-K, 20 November 2007, recites a December 2006 Air Force five-year ID/IQ, a $45 million ceiling, a $19.3 million Marine order of 19 November 2007, two air vehicles per system, a $22.6 million funded value after that order, Beyond Line of Sight as the Air Force program of record, and cost-plus integration completed in October 2007; the attached release claims first micro-UAS program of record, names DARPA as the prior evaluator, and places Marine issue at platoon below Raven; the fact sheet and the release disagree by half an inch on wingspan. Inference, moderate: the December vehicle is a joint-service buy on paper; the Marine platoon issue and the $19.3 million order are 2007 events riding a recited 2006 contract; the wingspan split is a recitation problem, not proof of two airframes. Judgment: micro-UAS became a program of record that other services can shop; it did not become a December platoon. Unknown: the December 2006 award notice; the Air Force dollars obligated in December; FA8629-07-D-2376 as a fetched December primary; any December 2006 delivery to Battlefield Airmen.

A Passport that recorded BATMAV as a December fielding, or as a Marine platoon issue in 2006, would have certified the wrong artifact. The artifact is a later-recited ID/IQ. Control Fabric is the Air Force vehicle the Marines can shop in 2007. Watch refuses a December delivery and refuses to treat the 8-K ceiling as a December obligation. Lab is a DARPA-derived one-pound airframe already in evaluation, now being bought as a program of record whose first Air Force system arrives the next year.

## 4. Stores-Management Begins Weapons-Release Testing

The third public plate is a March 2007 GAO sentence recited on a program chronology, not a December test-range release. The fetched GlobalSecurity MQ-9 program compilation, citing a March 2007 Government Accountability Office assessment, states: "The Reaper entered system development in February 2004 with three of its four critical technologies mature according to a March 2007 report by the Government Accountability Office. The fourth technology experienced several delays, but began weapons release testing in December 2006. Once mature, the technology would enable the program to perform its primary mission—to destroy enemy targets." The same compilation names the three mature technologies as the synthetic aperture radar, the multispectral targeting system, and the air vehicle. "The fourth technology, the stores management subsystem, was designed to integrate and store data necessary to launch munitions. This subsystem had experienced several delays. It was initially expected to be mature in 2004. The latest delay was a result of incorporating the HELLFIRE missile into the subsystem. It began weapons release testing in December 2006."7

GAO-07-406SP exists as a fetched March 2007 product. The report to congressional committees is dated March 30, 2007; the review ran from June 2006 through March 2007; MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned Aircraft System is an assessed program on the contents page. The individual two-page Reaper assessment was not independently extracted from the PDF in a form that can be quoted here as a page image. The December weapons-release sentence is therefore held as the chronology's recitation of that assessment, not as a line-for-line pull from page 111. A May 2007 GAO ISR report, GAO-07-578, used here only for the planned operating-capability gate, states independently: "The Reaper entered systems development in February 2004. Its initial operating capability is planned for 2009."8

An earlier GAO unmanned-aircraft report, GAO-06-447, seen in search and not independently extracted as a full-text primary in this pass, had already separated the hunter-killer's last technology from the airframe: Predator B technologies were mature except the one that manages the weapons the larger aircraft will carry and launch, a data-link function that lets a ground operator release a weapon because "in unmanned aircraft, unlike manned aircraft, there is no one in the cockpit to fire the weapon." Program officials, that report stated, expected the capability to be demonstrated in an operational environment after integration on a Predator B in May 2006. That May demonstration is a 2006 expectation in a March 2006 report. It is not used here as a December 2006 fact, and it is not used to reopen the October 2001 Hellfire-clearance sibling. The December fact the chronology gives is later and narrower: stores-management began weapons-release testing.9

Honesty requires four labels. Fact: the fetched chronology attributes to March 2007 GAO a December 2006 start of weapons-release testing on the stores-management subsystem; three of four critical technologies are recited as mature; SMS was initially expected mature in 2004; the latest delay is Hellfire incorporation; GAO-07-406SP exists as a March 30, 2007 product whose review window includes December 2006; GAO-07-578 plans IOC for 2009. Inference, moderate: December's hunter-killer fact is a test, not a war; early-fielding aircraft will fly before SMS is mature. Judgment: concurrency is no longer theoretical; the gate that closed is a test gate. Unknown: an independently extracted GAO-07-406SP Reaper page; a December test-range release; a stores-management serial; any December weapons-release result, pass or fail.

A Watch desk that converted a December test into a December weapon, or into initial operational capability, would have certified the wrong event. The hunter-killer's fourth critical technology is in release test. The campaign is not. The sibling file on Hellfire clearance is a 2001 object and is pointed, not rebuilt. The December rhyme is narrower: incorporating that missile delayed the subsystem that launches it, and the test that began is not the clearance that file already treated.

## 5. A Named Hunter-Killer Without IOC

The fourth public plate is a name, a lot-count, and an empty combat line. On 14 September 2006 Dow Jones Newswires, reprinted on the fetched GlobalSecurity news page, reported: "It's official: the killer combat drone formally known as Predator B will henceforth be dubbed the Reaper, the U.S. Air Force said Wednesday." "The Air Force so far has seven of the combat drones — officially designated the MQ-9 — in its current inventory. In 2009, the service is scheduled to decide whether it wants a full production run." Gen. T. Michael Moseley, identified as Air Force chief of staff, said in a statement: "The name Reaper is one of the suggestions that came from our airmen in the field. It's fitting as it captures the lethal nature of this new weapon system." The same-day Air Force release, as later service pages and the program chronology recite it, called MQ-9 "the Air Force's first hunter-killer UAV," larger and more powerful than MQ-1, designed to go after time-sensitive targets "with 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles," able to stay airborne "for up to 14 hours fully loaded," powered by "a 900-horsepower turbo-prop engine, compared to the 119-horsepower Predator engine," with "a 64-foot wingspan" and "more than 15 times the ordnance of the Predator." The inventory sentence is repeated: seven MQ-9s, full-rate production decision expected in 2009.10

The fetched chronology is explicit about what 2006 is not. "No 2006 combat mission, no 2006 IOC in fetched official recitations. First Creech delivery is 13 March 2007 on the same chronology." A later Air Force acquisition narrative, seen in search and not treated as a December primary, dates Gen. Ronald Keys's COMACC request to March 2006, the early-fielding goal of a 2007 initial operational capability, the first Creech touchdown to late March 2007, and Afghanistan missions to late September 2007. Those 2007 cards are next year's archive. They are not back-dated. The March 2006 early-fielding demand is established public context for why a December test sits next to preproduction aircraft; it is not a December fielding.11

Honesty requires four labels. Fact: 14 September 2006 naming as Dow Jones and the chronology report it; seven airframes as of that announcement; full-rate production decision pointed at 2009; Moseley's "lethal nature" sentence; no 2006 combat and no 2006 IOC in the fetched official recitations; first Creech delivery dated 13 March 2007 on the same chronology; GAO-07-578 plans IOC for 2009. Inference, moderate: 2006 is development plus a name plus lots; early fielding is a command demand, not a closed gate. Judgment: a named hunter-killer is not a campaign. Unknown: a 2006 combat orbit in any official recitation not fetched here; a 2006 IOC memorandum; the tail numbers of the seven.

A Passport that recorded Reaper as initial operational capability in 2006, or as a Creech combat orbit in December, would have certified the wrong artifact. The artifact is a name, seven airframes, and a test. Control Fabric is the immature stores-management subsystem hanging under that name. Watch refuses 2006 combat and refuses 2006 IOC. Lab is a Predator-B-derived airframe already in lots, now being produced for an interim combat capability whose first Nevada delivery is the next year.

## 6. Public Predator Language Without U.S. Admission

The fifth public plate is a year-end attribution card, not a December strike. Three Federally Administered Tribal Areas fights sit on the opened file as contested platforms, not as a merged campaign. On 18 June 2004 NBC News, sourcing the Associated Press, reported that Pakistani forces had killed Nek Mohammed "in a helicopter assault on a mud-brick fortress near the Afghan border." Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan "said Pakistani forces were the ones who killed Mohammed. He said local reports that an unmanned U.S. aircraft may have fired the missile were 'absurd.'" The United States "was not clear" as a participant; Pakistan "acknowledges that it sometimes receives 'technical help' from the Americans." That is a denied-UAV card. It is not a U.S. admission.12

On 13–14 January 2006 the BBC dated Damadola. "Jets — or in some accounts a Predator drone — reportedly fired missiles at a particular housing compound in the village" of Damadola in Bajaur, "about 7km (4.5 miles) from the Afghan border." "The US military says it is not aware of any operations taking place in the Bajaur tribal area." Pakistan's information minister said the U.S. ambassador would be summoned. Officials said Ayman al-Zawahiri "was not in a Pakistani village near the Afghan border" and that the attack was based on "false information." At least 18 people were killed. A second BBC item the same day repeated the Predator clause and the U.S. military denial, and recorded Islamabad's protest. Those sentences are facts about what the BBC printed. They are not a U.S. on-the-record campaign speech, and they are not an independent adjudication that a Predator fired.13

On 30 October 2006 the BBC dated Chenagai. "At least 80 militants have been killed in an air strike by Pakistani forces on a madrassa (religious school) used as a militant training camp, the army says." "The army said the madrassa in the tribal area of Bajaur bordering Afghanistan was destroyed by helicopter gunships early on Monday." An eyewitness told the BBC that 70–80 students were inside. A provincial minister, Siraj ul-Haq, called it "an unprovoked attack on a madrassa" and said the dead "were innocent people." The same item notes that Bajaur "was the scene of a controversial US air strike in January, believed to be aimed at al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri." The official line is helicopters. Local drone language is not certified in the fetched BBC text as a U.S. UAV. The fetched GlobalSecurity MQ-9 compilation at one point dates a CIA Predator strike on Damadola to 30 October 2006 — a date that belongs to Chenagai. That compilation error is refused as a fact. The two cards stay split.14

Honesty requires four labels. Fact: three dated partner lines that are not "U.S. UAV" — Sultan's "absurd" in June 2004, the U.S. military's "not aware" in January 2006, the Pakistani army's helicopters in October 2006; BBC's Damadola clause "jets — or in some accounts a Predator drone"; no 2006 U.S. on-the-record campaign speech fetched. Inference, moderate: Damadola is the first month a Watch desk can log Predator-in-Pakistan as a mainstream hypothesis; public U.S. silence is the 2004–06 fact. Judgment: a remote-strike campaign can run for two and a half years in public as a rumor; the rumor is not the campaign. Unknown: a U.S. admission; a named tail; a named unit; a Chenagai UAV as a certified platform; any December 2006 FATA missile.

Later-memory 2013 and 2014 Pakistan-drone histories were read in research and refused as 2004–06 contemporaneous facts, following the source filing. Treating those later tallies as December 2006 campaign speech would certify the wrong artifact. The three cards stay contested, not merged.

## 7. What a Passport Would Have Recorded

A December Passport, written the way LrrK would write it, would have recorded two program gates and left the rest empty. BATMAV: operator Air Force Special Operations Command as the later fact sheet states it; December 2006 award as later official recitations; AeroVironment Wasp III; one-pound, 28.5-inch air vehicle; approximately $49,000 in 2006 dollars; first micro-UAS program of record as the 2007 release claims it; December award notice, December dollars, and December delivery empty. MQ-9 stores-management: December 2006 weapons-release testing as the chronology recites March 2007 GAO; three of four critical technologies mature; SMS initially expected mature in 2004; Hellfire incorporation as the recited delay; test-range release and result empty. Reaper: named 14 September 2006; seven airframes; full-rate production pointed at 2009; IOC planned for 2009 in GAO-07-578; 2006 combat empty; 2006 IOC empty; first Creech delivery 13 March 2007 on the chronology, after cutoff. Remote strike: Nek Mohammed denied UAV; Damadola Predator-in-some-accounts; Chenagai official helicopters; U.S. admission empty. DJI: 2006 Shenzhen founding as a later B2 seed, not combat; Phantom empty.

Campaign is the month a micro-UAS became a program of record other services can shop and a hunter-killer's last critical technology entered release test — without a fetched December notice traveling with the award, without a December delivery traveling with the one-pound airframe, and without a combat orbit or an admission traveling with the name. Control Fabric is the recited ID/IQ, the immature stores-management subsystem, and the public Predator word that has no U.S. speaker. Watch refuses a December fielding, a December weapon, a 2006 IOC, a 2006 combat orbit, a certified Chenagai UAV, and any back-dated Phantom. Lab is Wasp III as the node that could be bought and MQ-9 as the node that could be tested. Kestrel correlates the recited December award with the GAO-dated test and the empty IOC line, and stops. Sense is the Wasp camera pair and the Reaper MTS. Move is the hand-held micro air vehicle and the still-unfinished stores-management bus. Act is a December test, not a December campaign.

The year-end political-economy recap in the source filing — iRobot public since November 2005, General Atomics sole source and data-rights notices, Foster-Miller QinetiQ-owned since November 2004, Hezbollah wartime UAV, ScanEagle hours, Katrina small-UAV, Navy undersea-vehicle master plan — is a pointer file, not a second thesis. Those plates are the objects of sibling papers and are not rebuilt. A Shenzhen founding is logged as a COTS seed and left empty of combat.

The honest limit is the source filing's. A December 2006 Commerce Business Daily or FedBizOpps notice would move BATMAV off later recitation. An independently extracted GAO-07-406SP Reaper page and a December test-range release would move stores-management off the chronology's paraphrase. A 2006 combat orbit or IOC memorandum would move Reaper off the empty line. A U.S. on-the-record campaign speech would move Damadola off hypothesis. Until those dispositions exist, "not established" is a gap. It is not a finding that the gap is safe.

## 8. Conclusion

December 2006 is misread when it is remembered as a month of closings. AeroVironment was selected for BATMAV in December in later official recitations, a one-pound, 28.5-inch micro air vehicle at approximately $49,000 in 2006 dollars, while the December award notice and a December delivery remained empty and the first Air Force system arrived in 2007. A March 2007 GAO assessment, as the fetched chronology recites it, dated the start of MQ-9 stores-management weapons-release testing to December, two years after that fourth critical technology was expected to be mature, while initial operational capability remained a 2009 plan and first Creech delivery remained a March 2007 event. The Air Force named the hunter-killer Reaper on 14 September and counted seven airframes, while 2006 combat and 2006 IOC remained empty. Damadola put "Predator" into some accounts of a Bajaur strike, while the U.S. military said it was not aware and no on-the-record campaign speech was fetched.

The trust failure is award plus test. Unmanned Sense can now be bought as a micro-UAS program of record without a fetched December notice and without a December platoon. Unmanned Act can now be tested as stores-management weapons release without a campaign and without IOC. Unmanned hunter-killer Move can now be named and counted without a 2006 combat orbit. A remote-strike campaign can now run in public as a Predator hypothesis without U.S. admission. The airframes are what a photograph would show. The gate is what a Passport would have to record.

LrrK's job on a month like this is not to reprint five signals. It is to name the property object and leave the empty lines empty. A Passport that recorded BATMAV as a December fielding, stores-management as a December weapon, Reaper as 2006 initial operational capability, Damadola as an admitted U.S. UAV campaign, or a Shenzhen founding as a combat product, would have certified the wrong artifact. A Watch desk that converted a 2007 8-K into a December daily-contracts paragraph, a 2007 Creech delivery into a 2006 orbit, or a later Pakistan-drone history into a 2006 speech, would have certified the wrong event. The durable record is narrower: December 2006 closed two program gates and did not close the campaign, the award did not travel with a fetched notice, the test did not travel with a weapon, and the gaps around the December notice, the test result, the combat orbit, and the admission are not safe defaults.

Endnotes

1. AeroVironment, Inc., Form 8-K, filed 20 November 2007. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1368622/000136862207000012/form8k.htm. AeroVironment, Inc., "United States Marine Corps Awards AeroVironment $19.3 Million BATMAV Contract for Wasp III Micro Unmanned Aircraft Systems," 20 November 2007. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1368622/000136862207000012/pressrelease.htm. U.S. Air Force, "Wasp III" fact sheet, published 1 November 2007. https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104480/wasp-iii/. GlobalSecurity.org, "MQ-9 Reaper / Predator B" program compilation. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/mq-9-program.htm.

2. U.S. Air Force, "Wasp III" fact sheet, published 1 November 2007, fetched via a later archive of the service page. The December 2006 award-after-competition sentence, the 2007 initial-delivery sentence, and the Air Force Special Operations Command Battlefield Airmen mission sentence are from this item.

3. Ibid. Wingspan 28.5 inches, length 10 inches, one-pound air vehicle, 14.4-pound system, 20–40 mph, 150–500-plus feet, approximately $49,000 in 2006 dollars, day/night camera, electric motor, and autonomous-or-handheld control are from this item.

4. AeroVironment, Inc., Form 8-K, 20 November 2007. The 19 November $19.3 million Marine order, two Wasp III air vehicles per system, the December 2006 Air Force five-year ID/IQ, the $45 million ceiling, Beyond Line of Sight as the program of record, October 2007 cost-plus completion, the November memorandum of agreement, and the $22.6 million funded value are from this filing.

5. AeroVironment, Inc., 20 November 2007 release attached to the 8-K. The 29-inch wingspan, one infrared and two color cameras, "first micro air vehicle to be adopted by the U.S. armed forces in support of a program of record," platoon issue below Raven, DARPA evaluation, Roudebush's platoon sentence, and Grabowsky's "emerging micro UAS solution" are from this item.

6. AeroVironment, Inc., "United States Air Force Approves BATMAV System with AeroVironment's Wasp III Micro Air Vehicle for Full Rate Production," 3 January 2008. https://investor.avinc.com/news-releases/news-release-details/united-states-air-force-approves-batmav-system-aerovironments. The December 2006 selection sentence is used as later recitation. Milestone C and full-rate production are 2008 events and are not back-dated.

7. GlobalSecurity.org, "MQ-9 Reaper / Predator B." The March 2007 GAO recitation, February 2004 development start, three mature critical technologies, stores-management function, 2004 maturity expectation, Hellfire-incorporation delay, and "began weapons release testing in December 2006" are from this compilation.

8. U.S. Government Accountability Office, *Defense Acquisitions: Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs*, GAO-07-406SP, 30 March 2007. https://www.gao.gov/assets/a258435.html. Report date, June 2006–March 2007 review window, and MQ-9 as an assessed program are from this product. The individual Reaper two-page assessment was not independently extracted as a quotable page image. U.S. Government Accountability Office, *Defense Acquisitions: Greater Synergies Possible for DOD's Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Systems*, GAO-07-578, 17 May 2007. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-578/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-578.htm. "Entered systems development in February 2004" and "initial operating capability is planned for 2009" are from the Reaper system description in this report.

9. U.S. Government Accountability Office, *Unmanned Aircraft Systems: New DOD Programs Can Learn from Past Efforts to Craft Better and Less Risky Acquisition Strategies*, GAO-06-447, seen in search and not independently extracted as a full-text primary in this pass. The May 2006 expected demonstration and the cockpit-absent release sentence are treated as established public context for the stores-management family, not as December 2006 facts. The October 2001 Hellfire-clearance sibling is pointed, not rebuilt.

10. Rebecca Christie, "US Air Force Dubs Predator B Drone The 'Reaper,'" Dow Jones Newswires, 14 September 2006, reprinted at https://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2006/060914-usaf-predator.htm. Seven airframes, 2009 full-production decision, and Moseley's "lethal nature" sentence are from this item. GlobalSecurity.org, "MQ-9 Reaper / Predator B," reciting the same-day Air Force release: first hunter-killer UAV, 500-pound bombs and Hellfire, 14 hours fully loaded, 900-horsepower versus 119, 64-foot wingspan, fifteen times the ordnance, seven in inventory, full-rate production expected in 2009.

11. GlobalSecurity.org, "MQ-9 Reaper / Predator B." No 2006 combat, no 2006 IOC, and 13 March 2007 first Creech delivery are from this compilation. Later Air Force acquisition narratives dating the March 2006 COMACC request, a 2007 early-fielding IOC goal, and September 2007 Afghanistan missions were seen in search and are refused as December 2006 facts.

12. Associated Press via NBC News, "Suspected al-Qaida ally killed in Pakistan," 18 June 2004. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5239580. Helicopter assault, Sultan's denial that an unmanned U.S. aircraft fired, "absurd," and "technical help" are from this item.

13. BBC News, "Zawahiri 'not hit by US missile,'" 14 January 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4612400.stm. BBC News, "'Zawahiri' strike sparks protest," 14 January 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4613108.stm. Damadola, Bajaur, "jets — or in some accounts a Predator drone," U.S. military "not aware," ambassador summoned, Zawahiri not present, and at least 18 killed are from these items.

14. BBC News, "Pakistan madrassa raid 'kills 80,'" 30 October 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6097636.stm. Helicopter gunships as the army line, 80 killed, Siraj ul-Haq's "unprovoked" sentence, and the January Bajaur cross-reference are from this item. The GlobalSecurity compilation's 30 October 2006 Damadola-Predator dating is refused as a conflation with Chenagai.

Selected Bibliography

AeroVironment, Inc. Form 8-K. Filed 20 November 2007. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1368622/000136862207000012/form8k.htm

AeroVironment, Inc. "United States Marine Corps Awards AeroVironment $19.3 Million BATMAV Contract for Wasp III Micro Unmanned Aircraft Systems." 20 November 2007. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1368622/000136862207000012/pressrelease.htm

AeroVironment, Inc. "United States Air Force Approves BATMAV System with AeroVironment's Wasp III Micro Air Vehicle for Full Rate Production." 3 January 2008. https://investor.avinc.com/news-releases/news-release-details/united-states-air-force-approves-batmav-system-aerovironments

Associated Press via NBC News. "Suspected al-Qaida ally killed in Pakistan." 18 June 2004. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5239580

BBC News. "Pakistan madrassa raid 'kills 80.'" 30 October 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6097636.stm

BBC News. "'Zawahiri' strike sparks protest." 14 January 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4613108.stm

BBC News. "Zawahiri 'not hit by US missile.'" 14 January 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4612400.stm

Christie, Rebecca. "US Air Force Dubs Predator B Drone The 'Reaper.'" Dow Jones Newswires, 14 September 2006. https://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2006/060914-usaf-predator.htm

GlobalSecurity.org. "MQ-9 Reaper / Predator B." https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/mq-9-program.htm

U.S. Air Force. "Wasp III." Fact sheet, published 1 November 2007. https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104480/wasp-iii/

U.S. Government Accountability Office. *Defense Acquisitions: Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs*. GAO-07-406SP. 30 March 2007. https://www.gao.gov/assets/a258435.html

U.S. Government Accountability Office. *Defense Acquisitions: Greater Synergies Possible for DOD's Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Systems*. GAO-07-578. 17 May 2007. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-578/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-578.htm

Source note. This paper distinguishes two December 2006 program gates (Wasp III selected for BATMAV as recited in the 1 November 2007 Air Force fact sheet, the 20 November 2007 AeroVironment 8-K and release, and the 3 January 2008 full-rate-production release; MQ-9 stores-management weapons-release testing as recited from March 2007 GAO on the fetched GlobalSecurity chronology) from the 14 September 2006 Reaper naming and seven-airframe count, the empty 2006 combat and IOC lines, and the year-end remote-strike attribution card (Nek Mohammed June 2004, Damadola January 2006, Chenagai October 2006). It treats the November 2007 8-K, the November 2007 fact sheet, and the January 2008 release as later sources for a December award and labels them as such. It treats GAO-07-406SP as a fetched March 2007 product whose individual Reaper page was not independently extracted, and therefore holds the December weapons-release sentence as the chronology's recitation. It treats GAO-07-578's 2009 IOC plan as a fetched primary for the planned gate, not as a December 2006 event. It treats GAO-06-447's May 2006 expected demonstration as established public context for the stores-management family, not as a December fact. It refuses the GlobalSecurity compilation's 30 October 2006 Damadola-Predator dating as a conflation with Chenagai. It refuses later-memory 2013 New York Times and 2014 Bureau of Investigative Journalism Pakistan-drone histories as 2004–06 contemporaneous facts. It refuses to back-date Milestone C, Marine platoon issue, first Creech delivery, Afghanistan combat, or Phantom. A December 2006 Commerce Business Daily or FedBizOpps notice, an independently extracted GAO-07-406SP Reaper page, a December test-range release, a named high-side combat orbit, a 2006 IOC memorandum, and a U.S. on-the-record campaign speech were not fetched and are left empty. Sibling papers on October 2001 Hellfire clearance, November 2004 unmanned access as title, September 2005 node as not the service, June 2007 Fire Scout and HUGIN, April 2008 orbit as not airspace, January 2009 inherited covert command and control, January 2010 Haiti/FOIA, July 2010 Stuxnet Passport, and May 2011 Shabwa are one-line pointers only and are not rebuilt. The temporal frame is the December 2006 collection cutoff (31 December). The analysis should be revalidated against any independently fetched December 2006 award notice, any extracted GAO-07-406SP Reaper page, any December stores-management test report, any 2006 combat or IOC pairing, and any U.S. admission of the Pakistan campaign.