The Air Force recently deployed the second increment of Gorgon Stare, a wide-area persistent surveillance system flown on the MQ-9 Reaper, announced manufacturer Sierra Nevada Corporation. The latest generation achieved initial operating capability and was deployed to Afghanistan earlier this year, according to the July 1 release. “SNC’s latest Gorgon Stare milestone reflects a total government-industry team effort,” said Dave Bullock of SNC. “Together, we’ve rapidly fielded a never-before built, state-of-the-art system that delivers urgently needed and unprecedented warfighting capabilities. The Increment 2 system will make a significant contribution to preserving the lives of our deployed troops,” he said. The Gorgon Stare Increment 2 “provides a four-fold increase in area coverage with a two-fold improvement in resolution compared to its predecessor,” states the release. It “features two state-of-the-art imaging sensor turrets—an electro-optical sensor” and an infrared sensor. (See also Gorgon Stare, Sentinel, and MQ-X.)
The last remaining T-1 Jayhawk at JBSA-Randolph, Texas, took its final flight to the "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on July 15. The 99th Flying Training Squadron will train pilots using T-6 and simulator until it gets T-7 Red Hawk in fiscal 2026.