The airmen working with the high-flying Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle at Beale AFB, Calif., last week carried out their first operational mission from Beale. The 9th Reconnaissance Wing airmen deployed the UAV to Andersen AFB, Guam, for the first time, reports 2nd Lt. Ashley Peltier. Previously, the Beale airmen had worked with test personnel at Edwards AFB, Calif., flying the RQ-4 from Edwards. “We have stabilized our training operations at Beale and are now stepping out to show that we can safely self-deploy the Global Hawk around the world,” says Lt. Col. J. Scott Winstead, commander of the 9th RW’s 12th Reconnaissance Squadron. He noted that the “primary challenge” from the ops side was “software and weather,” because the pilots had to train with new software and a typhoon delayed the deployment by a week.
New approaches to testing Space Force equipment are speeding up delivery to operators, but the service needs more testers and perhaps its own space-focused test center, officials said April 1. Those are key pieces of the fledgling force’s testing methods and future moves that will keep new technology flowing into…