Hester and the Hawk:

The PACAF Commander, Gen. Paul V. Hester, is excited with the new assets rotating into his AOR – particularly the Global Hawk which he confessed to the AFA audience he’s fallen in love with. “I will take a heck of a lot more of those things,” he said, noting that because the majority of his theater is over the water, the Global Hawk’s high-altitude ISR capabilities and maritime sensors are perfectly suited to getting him the information he needs. He added that Japan, South Korea and Singapore are also interested in the aircraft and he wants to see the UAV “internationalizing” with allied countries to pave the way for joint operations (Global Hawks are on the way to Andersen AFB, Guam in 2007, Hester said). He also added that PACAF will start getting its C-17s next week, since he’s going out to Long Beach, California next week to fly the new “Spirit of Hawaii” to Hickam AFB, the first of eight planned for the hub of PACAF and the first C-17s stood up outside the CONUS.