Paul McHale, the Pentagon point man for Homeland Defense, said Tuesday in Washington that Noble Eagle combat air patrols are still necessary even in the now unlikely event that terrorists could take control of a civilian aircraft and turn it into a weapon as they did on Sept. 11, 2001. The stateside CAPs, predominantly flown by the Air National Guard, will continue, noted McHale, “with varying degrees of intensity.”
General Atomics, the maker of one of the Air Force’s first Collaborative Combat Aircraft, has ambitious plans for its family of semi-autonomous drones beyond the FQ-42, including a flying-wing aircraft capable of carrying out both reconnaissance and strike missions. Meanwhile, the Air Force Research Laboratory announced a new program to…