The force of 1,100 UAV pilots that the Air Force anticipates building by Fiscal 2012 will be no token group. In fact, this set of fliers will be second in size only to the service’s F-16 pilot community, Brig. Gen. Lyn Sherlock, director of air operations on the Air Staff, said Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference (see below). Sherlock said the Air Force has “a little over 450” operators of Predator and Reaper UAVs today. “In the next couple of years, we are going to double that number,” she said during a press briefing. Those pilots will be flying these UAVs “directly in support of the warfighter,” she said. Additional pilots will be added on top of that to provide expertise in UAV matters in air operations centers and on command staffs, thereby bringing the total to 1,100, she said.
When the Space Force discusses the cyber threats faced by the service or the commercial satellite providers it uses, it typically frames the issue as a nation-state one. But for cyber defenders in the commercial space sector responsible for day-to-day operations, the reality is rather different: Like other providers of…
