Unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous aircraft may provide a solution to operating in heavily contested domains such as the Taiwan Straits, according to a panel of expert who suggested operationalizing artificial intelligence for such purposes sooner rather than later. The group gathered virtually to help ...
The Air Force is starting to field some enhanced capabilities for the MQ-9 Reaper fleet that will better prepare it to operate in more denied environments while also moving away from the idea of an “MQ-Next” direct follow-on for the remotely piloted aircraft. While the ...
Air Force MQ-9s have a new permanent home in Romania. U.S. Air Forces in Europe announced Jan. 4 that Reapers and about 90 Airmen are now based at Romanian Air Force Base 71 at Campia Turzii. The surveillance and attack drones are assigned to the ...
Lawmakers have approved a slew of funding shifts the Pentagon requested in June to pay officers, avoid hiring freezes in the Department of the Air Force, and set up U.S. Space Command, among other priorities. The Defense Department routinely asks the House and Senate Appropriations ...
MQ-9 Reapers, the workhorse drone of America’s two-decade counterterrorism fight in the Middle East and Africa, want to show they’re getting a second wind. The MQ-9 schoolhouse at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., recently rewrote its syllabus to prepare Reaper pilots and sensor operators for ...
An MQ-9 Reaper assigned to the 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., was damaged when it skidded off the runway on Sept. 2, the base announced. The incident remains under investigation.
The Air Force wants its follow-on to the venerable MQ-9 Reaper to move beyond the surveillance and strike roles, and be able to conduct air-to-air and base defense missions with increased autonomy to lessen the number of people in the loop, the service’s top acquisition ...
A General Atomics official said the company is surprised by the Air Force’s plan to stop buying new MQ-9 Reapers in fiscal 2020, after expecting to gradually wind down the production line. Chris Pehrson, General Atomics' vice president of strategic development, told Air Force Magazine ...
The Air Force’s MQ-9 presence in Eastern Europe has moved south again, as the 52nd Expeditionary Operations Group Det. 2 begins flying in Romania this month. The MQ-9s are deployed to Miroslawiec AB, Poland, and this is the second time they have moved to the ...
An MQ-9 Reaper’s engine design led the drone to crash about 20 minutes after takeoff while deployed overseas in September 2018, a recently released Air Force accident investigation concluded. “Engineering analysis of the data logs, engine components, and propeller governor, as well as reports from ...
Congress approved relatively modest funding for the Air Force’s main drone programs in fiscal 2020 while continuing to endorse investments in new kinds of unmanned aircraft.