The unmanned aerial vehicle mission is “a good one” for the air reserve components, Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Tuesday during a media session at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington, D.C. He noted that the Air Force will be pulling out all the stops to man and equip more UAV capability for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, given the insatiable demand for full-motion video from ground commanders. (See below for one new initiative focused on providing more active duty UAV pilots.) However, when the wars end and the UAVs and their operators come home, there won’t be as much need for them, said Donley, requiring a flexibility that the Air Guard and Air Force Reserve have shown in switching missions.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.