With the rise of UAVs, the Army is getting another shot at having its own “Air Force”

See:

https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/20100404.aspx

Quote:

“Last year, the U.S. Army received the first production models of its Sky Warrior MQ-1C UAVs. Two years ago, two of the prototypes were sent to Iraq for testing. That was a success, and four MQ-1Cs are now operating in Iraq, supplanting the smaller Shadow 200s. Four MQ-1Cs will go to Afghanistan in a few months. Currently, the MQ-1Cs cost $8 million each, but this will go down to $6 million as more are manufactured.

The MQ-1Cs are slightly larger Predators, and are being used for missions formerly performed by Shadow 200, and other large army UAVs. The big difference is that Sky Warrior can carry weapons (like Hellfire missiles.) Thus the army will be using missile firing, fixed wing combat aircraft, something it has not been able to do for many decades (since the U.S. Air Force was created out of the old U.S. Army Air Force in the late 1940s). The air force has accepted, for the moment, that unmanned aircraft are not the sole preserve of the air force, and the army is taking that and building a new air force for itself.”