Members of the first class of the US Air Force Academy’s unmanned aircraft system and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance education program received their wings Aug. 11 during a ceremony at the institution in Colorado Springs, Colo. “You are pioneers,” Brig. Gen. Dana Born, the dean of the USAFA faculty, told the graduates. The class included 25 cadets overall, four of whom served in a leadership role, academy spokeswoman Ann Patton, told the Daily Report Wednesday. Their training included classroom instruction and flight training on two Viking 300 unmanned aerial vehicles at Camp Red Devil at Ft. Carson, Colo. “The biggest surprise was how much we learned,” said Cadet 3rd Class Jonathan Broadbent, one of the graduates. He added, “We worked with some really professional people.” The next crop of cadets participating in this program will start flight training next month. (Colorado Springs report by Ann Patton)
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.