The Army tested its Hunter Standoff Killer Team technology demonstration program last month at Pax River—sending target data over the Link 16 high-speed, digital data link from an Army command and control UH-60 helicopter on the ground to an airborne Air Force F-15E and Navy F/A-18C/D. It worked. Yet to come is a full-up flight test later this year, marrying up a Hunter UAV and an AH-64 Apache—both flying—with the F-15E and F/A-18C/D.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.