Troops were “fatigued, worn, and frayed around the edges” in 2013, as the Government Accountability Office put it. That was when U.S. Special Operations Command established its Preservation of the Force and Family program designed to provide extra resources for service members’ holistic well being ...
remotely piloted aircraft
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 ...
Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft are among the Air Force's most-requested assets worldwide, but the service wants to cut back the number of combat air patrols it supports with ISR on any given day so it can free up funds in the fiscal 2022 budget ...
The Pentagon could save a lot of money on personnel and increase force structure with expanded use of “remotely crewed” systems, but the diversity of size and application of such systems demands specialized thinking, rather than just lumping them together as “drones,” according to experts ...
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 ...
The Air Force may not have enough remotely piloted aircraft pilots and sensor operators to stand up a new wing in 2024, as it struggles to retain personnel and increase the size of its instructor pilot cadre, the Government Accountability Office says in a new ...
Fighter jets won support among senators in new defense policy legislation that also raised questions about some of the Air Force’s top priorities. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved a $740.5 billion version of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill 25-2 on June 10. Its ...
It's time to stop giving China a helping hand.
Drone pilots and their sensor operator partners are used to life in enclosed spaces. They sit side-by-side in ground control stations, or cockpits, that measure less than 200 square feet, but those close quarters make social distancing in the age of coronavirus a challenge. Still, ...
The Air Force’s sole center for undergraduate remotely piloted aircraft training, located at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, was renamed “Crawford Hall” on Nov. 13, 2019, in honor of the late Ollie Crawford, a World War II pilot and Air Force Association charter member who ...
There is still more work to be done to fully realize the power of RPA technology.
