USAF Joint Terminal Attack Controllers assisting with recovery operations after Hurricane Katrina had the latest in battlefield technology, enabling them to view real-time video from specially equipped aircraft. Air Combat Command deployed 10 Remote Operations Video Enhanced Receiver—or ROVER—units to the Gulf Coast area for use by JTACs from 9th Air Force, headquartered at Shaw AFB, S.C. According to ACC, ROVERs received imagery from active duty A-10 and Air National Guard C-130 and Navy P-3 aircraft, as well as the camera of a tactical unmanned aerial vehicle mounted on top of a hotel in downtown New Orleans.
The U.S. military announced Dec. 6 that it is standing down its entire fleet of Ospreys after eight Airmen were killed in a crash. The Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy are all standing down Osprey operations after an Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22 crashed off the coast of…