T
he Air Force has made good on its plan to switch some fighter/bomber pilots to unmanned aerial vehicles. At least, Associated Press reports that the service says it recently shifted some 120 pilots to UAVs to help keep pace with a surge in UAV operations. Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, said last summer that the service must address a surplus of fighter/bomber pilots and a deficit in UAVs, special operations, and command and control systems. Lolita Baldor of AP reports that USAF had “more than doubled” UAV flying hours from January to October in Southwest Asia, climbing from about 2,000 in January to about 4,300 in October.
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.