Air Combat Command has activated the 42nd Attack Squadron at Creech AFB, Nev., whose mission is to operate the MQ-9 Reaper hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle. The Reaper can carry 15 times the amount of weapons than its smaller brother, the MQ-1 Predator. (Note: The Air Force news release says the 42nd AS is the service’s first “attack squadron,” which may be so since 1947, but the service’s antecedents had at least one, the 8th Attack Squadron, forerunner to today’s 8th Special Operations Squadron.)
The Space Force and NRO will build a large number of targeting satellites to go in low-Earth orbit, the USSF’s top intelligence officer said May 2—keeping with the service’s emphasis on proliferating its assets. For months now, the two organizations have been working on a program to develop satellites that will…