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Air Force quietly speeds up plans to eliminate spy planes on the front line of America’s fentanyl war
CNN ^ | 12/27/2022 | Zachary Cohen

Posted on 12/31/2022 7:27:40 AM PST by DFG

The US Air Force is moving up its timeline for scrapping a small fleet of surveillance planes used to help take fentanyl pills off the streets, telling National Guard pilots they must fly their aircraft to the boneyard by the end of the month so they can be stripped for parts, according to documents obtained by CNN.

The new plan to eliminate the twin-engine RC-26 aircraft months earlier than anticipated marks an escalation in the service’s quest to phase out the small yet heavily used fleet of planes despite its contributions to counter drug and border missions.

It also comes at a time when the Biden administration is facing increasing scrutiny over its border policies and is grappling with a dramatic rise in fentanyl deaths around the country.

Once it became clear in March that Congress was unlikely to adopt a provision that would have extended funding for the aircraft, the Air Force told pilots who operate the RC-26 that they could continue to fly missions until April 2023, according to internal memos obtained by CNN.

But in November, pilots received new orders, instructing them to take their planes to the boneyard before the end of the year so they could be scrapped for parts, rather than sold to another non-Defense Department entity as originally planned, the memos show.

Multiple sources characterized the shift as a “drastic change” by the Air Force that came without warning. As a result, the force will lose roughly 80 pilots at a time when it is already facing a service-wide shortage, sources say.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: airforce; fentanyl; nationalguard; rc26
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1 posted on 12/31/2022 7:27:40 AM PST by DFG
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To: DFG

The destruction of America from within is a planned operation, not accidental.


2 posted on 12/31/2022 7:32:00 AM PST by G Larry ( "woke" means 'stupid enough to fall for the promotion of every human weakness into a virtue')
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To: DFG

It almost seems intentional doesn’t it?


3 posted on 12/31/2022 7:32:52 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: DFG

Democrats don’t want to stop the drugs. They opened the border, encouraged crossings, chained immigration officers, and now have defunded the surveillance aircraft.

People aren’t asking the right question. The question is “Why do the Democrats and Joe Biden support Fentanyl and drugs coming into the US?”

That’s the question. As always, think money for the answer.


4 posted on 12/31/2022 7:34:01 AM PST by Pete Dovgan
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To: DFG

5 posted on 12/31/2022 7:34:08 AM PST by moovova ("The NEXT election is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: DFG
surveillance planes used to help take fentanyl pills off the streets

And USAF how is that strategy been working out? Just like all your other wars, I think that truth on the ground shows you are losing, like every war since WWII.

6 posted on 12/31/2022 7:35:09 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: DFG

Deliberate destruction of the US and our military.

FR still has ******** wanting us being involved in the Ukraine.


7 posted on 12/31/2022 7:35:16 AM PST by EEGator
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To: DFG

Those aircraft were getting to be a monkey wrench in the invasion the Democrats have in place. Full speed ahead replacing America’s youth with foreigners. I am surprised Biden didn’t get rid of them on day one.


8 posted on 12/31/2022 7:35:35 AM PST by fireman15 (Irritating people are the grit from which we fashion our pearl. I provide the grit. You're Welcome.)
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To: ealgeone

It is.


9 posted on 12/31/2022 7:35:40 AM PST by sport
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To: DFG

It is very hard to understand the reasoning on this move. Why wouldn’t these pilots be supported when they are doing good work by getting a jump on the fentanyl crisis coming across the border. You would think DC would want all the help they can get to stop the drugs. But I guess they want more people to die, huh?


10 posted on 12/31/2022 7:35:55 AM PST by JoJo354 (We need to get to work, Conservatives!)
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To: DFG
CNN showing its brilliance again. The USAF is retiring aircraft a few months early. That does not equate with retiring the pilots. They will just be retrained to fly other aircraft.

One wonders, though, why the aircraft are being retired early. Is the Biden regime encouraging drug smuggling? Or perhaps the aircraft were also being used to find people jumping the border, which is clearly contrary to the regimes wishes.

11 posted on 12/31/2022 7:36:20 AM PST by jimtorr
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To: Pete Dovgan

Afghanistan’s yields of poppy was maximized under W while our troops were in the greatest numbers there.
Bush and his spook dad are globalist trash.
May they rot for eternity.


12 posted on 12/31/2022 7:37:38 AM PST by EEGator
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To: G Larry

No kidding.


13 posted on 12/31/2022 7:38:13 AM PST by sauropod (“If they don’t believe our lies, well, that’s just conspiracy theorist stuff, there.”)
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To: DFG

The drug cartels have told The Big Guy he needs to do more to earn his 10%.


14 posted on 12/31/2022 7:39:51 AM PST by Roadrunner383
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To: DFG

“Air Force quietly speeds up plans to eliminate spy planes on the front line of America’s fentanyl war”

Probably handing them over to Ukraine.


15 posted on 12/31/2022 7:40:04 AM PST by BobL
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To: EEGator

I don’t see what Bush has to do with this.


16 posted on 12/31/2022 7:40:24 AM PST by gibsonguy
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To: DFG; All

Those who constantly are orgiastic about US military support of the ‘magnificent Ukrainian freedom fighters’ and regularly dismiss remarks about using military technology to protect border’s, the borders of the US, as nonsense as the Uke hardware is only a ‘few billion’ compared to the US defense budget are directed to this. But my belief the stooges like like Tholo and Timber Rattler really could give a rat’s ass less for the real American people and are just as happy that normal America is being destroyed so it can become a province in Globo-Homo endless borderless empire.


17 posted on 12/31/2022 7:44:30 AM PST by robowombat ( )
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To: gibsonguy

Posters here blame Democrats, when the blame lays with both parties.
How has the US improved since HW Bush?
It’s the same BS over and over again.
My entire life, nothing has been done about the border.
Demographics is destiny.
If the border isn’t fixed, nothing else matters.


18 posted on 12/31/2022 7:46:15 AM PST by EEGator
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To: DFG
Makes sense. Probably much cheaper to do it with drones.

"The U.S. Air Force is being criticized for accelerating the timeline for retiring its fleet of 11 RC-26 surveillance aircraft. The aircraft, modified versions of the Swearingen Metroliner equipped with electronic surveillance equipment, cost about $30 million per year to operate and the Air Force maintains the mission—mostly domestic border patrol and drug trafficking intervention—can be completed more effectively and inexpensively with unmanned aircraft."

19 posted on 12/31/2022 7:46:47 AM PST by semimojo
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To: DFG

USAF Top Brass is either in the pay of the Mexican and Chinese cartels or they are running out of fentanyl pills.


20 posted on 12/31/2022 7:48:14 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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