An MQ-9 Reaper drone plunged into the Mediterranean Sea last winter after its propeller suddenly disconnected from the engine, a recently released Air Force investigation concluded.
MQ-9 Reaper
The computer code that runs the MQ-9 Reaper drone will be overhauled in the next two years to test revolutionary new tools that would make its software “much, much harder to hack,” the Air Force says.
A new training initiative at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., is helping MQ-9 maintainers expand their specialties, essentially giving one Airman the skills of three to be able to generate sorties with minimal crews.
The head of Air Force Special Operations Command envisions a future where MQ-9 Reaper drones act as ‘capital ships’ from which smaller uncrewed aerial systems launch to establish a sensor grid or a communications pathway for the joint force.
MQ-9 drone student operators are now trained to land and take off via satellite, dramatically shrinking the footprint of of personnel and equipment needed for Reaper operations. Previously, Reapers have been flown by operators in faraway ground control stations but launched and recovered by Airmen ...
The Air Force should focus on fighter pilots learning to operate with one Collaborative Combat Aircraft before asking them to control two or more, ACC commander Gen. Mark D. Kelly said. The first CCAs should probably have some kind of electronic warfare mission, he added.
Air Force leaders today are making significant decisions about the future force, betting on the promise of autonomous collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) as a means to increase the Air Force’s combat capacity.
One extraordinary thing about the U.S. Air Force’s unmanned aircraft revolution was that it almost didn’t happen. The RQ-1 Predator changed the battlefield in Afghanistan, and later Iraq and elsewhere. And as GA-ASI workers were proving out and perfecting the Predator’s capabilities, they also developed ...
Ukraine needs USAF aircraft.
Ten Airmen on the South Pacific island of Palau watched intently as an MQ-9 Reaper flew in for an automatic landing recently. Neither of the two air crew members grabbed the controls from the pilot at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. Instead, for the first ...
A framework for understanding and developing autonomy in unmanned aircraft. The Air Force is rapidly evolving new concepts for teaming manned fighters and bombers with autonomous unmanned aircraft to perform strikes, counter-air, electronic warfare, and other missions.
