North Dakota officials announced yesterday that the North Dakota Air National Guard’s 119th Wing Happy Hooligans had flown their first unmanned aerial vehicle mission from Fargo, N.D. The wing surrendered its last F-16s in January, but some of its members already had been training on the new MQ-1 Predator mission. Wing Commander Col. Robert Becklund, called the switch “a dramatic and cultural change” but his unit is “bringing all the skills from the fighter mission into the Predator mission.” The North Dakota Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. David Sprynczynatyk, credited “hard work and dedication” of the Hooligans for “making this a very successful transition.”
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
