Bloodsuckers—number 768

"The US has been building defense hardware for two very different scenarios. One is regular warfare, with huge fleets of aircraft combating huge fleets of enemy aircraft, major tank battles, and navies fighting over all of the oceans.

"We are building equipment like the CVNs, nuclear submarines, the DDX destroyers, LCS ships for littoral warfare, a whole new Army designed around the concept of Future Combat Systems (FSC), the F-22 and the JSF for the Air Force.

"However, we are not fighting that kind of war at this time. What we are fighting now is irregular warfare, like the war in Iraq and the war Israel just recently fought in Lebanon. Snipers, IEDs, booby traps, and house-to-house fighting with an often unidentified enemy are the hallmarks of irregular warfare.

"To fight this kind of war effectively you need unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs), robots, IED countermeasures, sensors, and networking of communications."

Myron Levy, cahirman of Herley Industries, addressing stockholders at the company's annual stockholders' meeting.