The 49th Wing at Holloman AFB, N.M., recently completed an MQ-9 surge designed to test the limits of the volume and speed of possible operations. The wing completed 45 Reaper sorties totaling more than 465 flight hours within five days. In addition to the RPA pilots, the exercise involved air traffic controllers, maintainers, schedulers, munitions specialists, and range control operators. “While we are conducting surge operations you can see a flurry of activity that is happening across the base, and that is when we realize how integral of a team we are,” said Lt. Col. Timothy Monroe, commander of the 9th Attack Squadron, according to a press release. “There are a number of things happening on the flight line and in the flying squadrons; you can even see the broader impact around Holloman with our various mission support elements who are enabling pilots, sensor operators, and maintainers to launch all of these aircraft.”
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.