A new training initiative at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., is helping MQ-9 maintainers expand their specialties, essentially giving one Airman the skills of three to be able to generate sorties with minimal crews.
The head of Air Force Special Operations Command envisions a future where MQ-9 Reaper drones act as ‘capital ships’ from which smaller uncrewed aerial systems launch to establish a sensor grid or a communications pathway for the joint force.
MQ-9 drone student operators are now trained to land and take off via satellite, dramatically shrinking the footprint of of personnel and equipment needed for Reaper operations. Previously, Reapers have been flown by operators in faraway ground control stations but launched and recovered by Airmen ...
The Air Force should focus on fighter pilots learning to operate with one Collaborative Combat Aircraft before asking them to control two or more, ACC commander Gen. Mark D. Kelly said. The first CCAs should probably have some kind of electronic warfare mission, he added.
One extraordinary thing about the U.S. Air Force’s unmanned aircraft revolution was that it almost didn’t happen. The RQ-1 Predator changed the battlefield in Afghanistan, and later Iraq and elsewhere. And as GA-ASI workers were proving out and perfecting the Predator’s capabilities, they also developed ...
Ten Airmen on the South Pacific island of Palau watched intently as an MQ-9 Reaper flew in for an automatic landing recently. Neither of the two air crew members grabbed the controls from the pilot at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. Instead, for the first ...
An MQ-9 Reaper drone was taking off from Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., when it crashed on the runway at about 7:55 a.m. Dec. 6. No injuries were reported.
The Air Force needs to reconsider its plans to retire the MQ-9 Reaper by 2035, given the drone’s capabilities and potential uses when measured against financial constraints and mission demands, defense analysts from four different think tanks argued Nov. 19. Experts from the Mitchell Institute for ...
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Military Sales of Air Force systems are on pace to eclipse fiscal 2020 levels, the head of USAF's Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate said Aug. 5. Transfers have centered on F-15s, F-16s, F-35s, A-29s, and MQ-9 drones. Despite a push ...
An RQ-4 Global Hawk crashed several miles away from Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., on Aug. 6, the Air Force announced. The unmanned aircraft went down in a rural field near Gilby, N.D., and no injuries were reported. The cause of the crash or ...
The Air Force is starting to field some enhanced capabilities for the MQ-9 Reaper fleet that will better prepare it to operate in more denied environments while also moving away from the idea of an “MQ-Next” direct follow-on for the remotely piloted aircraft. While the ...
The successor to the RQ-4 Global Hawk should be available for service late in this decade, Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, told the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 21. Answering questions on divestitures of systems ...