Colonel Scott Sanborn, USAWC

Drones – Past, Present and Future

COL Sanborn is qualified as both an Aviation and a Military Intelligence officer serving in a variety of assignments over the past 28 years. He has commanded at the company, battalion and brigade level and held multiple staff positions including Chief of Staff of US Army Cyber Command. His Pentagon assignments include HQ, Department of the Army G2, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and the Secretary of Defense’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force. Mostly recently, COL Sanborn served as the Chief of Staff of the Army Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security a national defense policy oriented think tank located in Washington, DC. COL Sanborn’s deployment experience includes: operation DESERT SHIELD/STORM as an attack helicopter pilot with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment; deployments to Albania and Hungary during the mid-1990s as the commander of a provisional/experimental Predator unmanned aerial system company in support of operations PROVIDE PROMISE, DENY FLIGHT, DELIBERATE FORCE, and JOINT ENDEAVOR; and, multiple deployments to South America in support of airborne ISR operations. COL Sanborn also commanded the 224th Military Intelligence Battalion (Aerial Exploitation) during a deployment to Iraq from 06-07 where his unit conducted manned and unmanned airborne ISR operations in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.  From 2010-2012, COL Sanborn commanded the US Army Air Operations Group, where his unit was responsible for the global transport of the Army’s most senior leaders, rotary wing transport of senior Defense Department leaders in the National Capital Region, technical rescue engineer operations, as well as the operation of Davison Army Airfield at Ft Belvoir, VA and the Pentagon Heliport. From 2012-2014, he served as the second Chief of Staff of US Army Cyber Command/Second Army as the command continued to evolve as the Army Service Component of US Cyber Command and the newly established Second Army.

COL Sanborn’s education includes a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics from the University of Iowa, a Master of Science in Computer Resources and Information Management from Webster University (with honors), and a Master of Science in National Security Strategy from the National War College. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College, the US Army Military Intelligence Officer Adv  Course, and the US Army Avn Officer Basic Course.