Air Combat Command recently launched the “Culture and Process Improvement Program,” which is meant to address stress on airmen and families within the remotely piloted aircraft community, officials announced Aug. 31. To help pinpoint such concerns, the command sent 3,366 surveys to officers and enlisted airmen throughout these career fields. Beginning Sept. 8, two CPIP teams will visit the 12 Active Duty, Reserve, and Air National Guard locations to conduct meetings and build on what is gathered from the survey process. “We’re seeing problems in the MQ-1/9 community at both the major command and base levels that can be solved quickly,” said Col. Troy Jackson, C2ISR operations division chief and CPIP officer-in-charge. “Airmen in this career field are being exhausted with no end in sight; we want to fix this.” The program is based on Air Force Global Strike Command’s Force Improvement Program, which takes a grassroots approach to identifying and solving problems. CPIP site visits will begin at Creech AFB, Nev., and wrap up at Hancock Field ANGB, N.Y., on Sept. 23.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
