Air Force Stands Up First Armed Predator UAV Squadron

Defense Daily | March 11, 2002 | Marc Strass

[Stand Watch Listen]

The Air Force on Friday stood up its first armed Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) squadron, according to a service official.

The unit, designated the 17th Reconnaissance Squadron, will be the first Predator unit to be permanently equipped with the ability to carry and fire the laser-guided Lockheed Martin [LMT] AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missile, Air Combat Command (ACC) spokesman Senior Master Sgt. Kevin Walston, told Defense Daily on Friday.

Predator, which are built by General Atomics, have fired the Hellfire numerous times in Afghanistan with mixed success, but this is only an interim capability. It has only been able to attack fixed targets, for example.

The Air Force is looking to add a moving target capability to the Predator and plans to resume flight testing of the armed Predator concept later this year, testing interrupted by Operation Enduring Freedom (Defense Daily, March 7).

The unit will eventually be equipped with a total of 20 new Predators that will be capable of carrying and providing targeting for Hellfire missiles, Walston said.

The aircraft will be equipped with a pair of wings equipped with two hardpoints for Hellfire missiles and a Raytheon [RTN] Multispectrial Targeting System sensor ball. The ball is equipped with a laser designator and color electro-optical and infrared cameras.

The unit will be stationed alongside the 11th and 15th Reconnaissance Squadrons at Indian Springs Auxiliary Field, Nev., and will be fully mission capable by 2005. The other two squadrons are slated to be equipped with armed Predators at a future date.

Personnel for the new unit will be drawn from the two existing squadrons as well as new crewmembers coming out of Predator training.

The unit was activated by an order from Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper due to increased mission requirements stemming from Predator’s success in Operation Enduring Freedom. The service is looking to give all of its Predators an armed reconnaissance capability.

At an Air and Space Conference in Washington, D.C., last week, Jumper noted the problems he had while commander of the Air Force’s Air Combat Command in getting service officials to agree to a proposal for arming Predator with Hellfire.

"People blanched out and fainted" about the proposal, Jumper said, noting that opponents said that it would cost "tens of millions of dollars."

Instead, it cost $3 million, he said. Those attached to the intelligence field in the service thought that a Hellfire capability would make Predator unflyable, but Jumper said that putting Air Force technicians familiar with close air support on the problem solves such issues quickly.

[gcruse]

The threat inherent in Mutual Assured Destruction was the beginning of warfare without troops. War by Robot looks to be next. It used to be that science-fiction modeled the future, but I think that has been given over to CD-ROM action games.

[Free the USA]

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