Airmen permanently assigned to Creech AFB, Nev., will continue to receive assignment incentive pay through 2011 under a one-year extension that the Office of the Secretary of Defense has granted. Creech is a major USAF remotely piloted aircraft hub, with airmen there able to control MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper RPA that fly over Afghanistan and Iraq via satellite communications links. The AIP has been in effect for airmen at Creech since July 2008 to offset the base’s high operations tempo, austere location, and lack of quality-of-life facilities. AIP will be $300 per month for airmen in their first 36 months at Creech and $750 monthly thereafter. (Creech release)
A top Pentagon tech official called on industry this week to help the military develop “lighter, more efficient” directed energy weapons designed to go on aircraft and conduct special operations missions or down drones—areas where the Air Force’s directed energy efforts have been quiet as of late.