The Air Force formally announced Wednesday that it had shifted 21 MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles from Air Combat Command to Air Force Special Operations Command at the end of May. And, the service plans to give AFSOC another seven later this month, making a total of 28 for the air commandos’ 3rd Special Operations Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nev. The shift last month also gave the 3rd SOS some ACC personnel. AFSOC activated the new squadron in fall 2005.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.