The Fr
ench Air Force’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operational Squadron, with its MQ-1 Predator-like UAVs, supports coalition and International Security Assistance Force operations in Afghanistan from Bagram Air Field. The unit, which is the only such squadron in the French Air Force, has several dozen airmen deployed to Bagram to fly, maintain, and monitor the intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance platforms the French airmen have dubbed “Harfang.” EADS developed the UAV, which is based on an Israeli Aircraft Industry Eagle drone, for the French Ministry of Defense. (Bagram report by TSgt. John Jung)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.