Lt. Gen. Robert Otto

Lt. Gen. Robert Otto served as the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. On June 9, 2014, he publicly disclosed the U.S. Air Force's development of the RQ-180 remotely piloted aircraft, stating the service was 'working on the RQ-180 remotely piloted aircraft to give it better access to contested airspace, where the unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk and manned U-2S platforms are vulnerable.' This marked one of the few official acknowledgments of the classified reconnaissance program. Otto's statement represented a rare instance of senior Air Force leadership providing public information about advanced surveillance capabilities.