Free Republic

Too many missions and too few pilots are threatening the ‘readiness and combat capability’ of America’s unmanned Air Force, according to an internal memo. The U.S. Air Force’s fleet of drones is being strained to the “breaking point,” according to senior military officials and an internal service memo acquired by The Daily Beast. And it’s happening right when the unmanned aircraft are most needed to fight ISIS. The Air Force has enough MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones. It just doesn’t have the manpower to operate those machines. The Air Force’s situation is so dire that Air Combat Command (ACC),...

The 10-week investigation into the downing of a CIA drone in Iran is raising questions as to whether the malfunctions inadvertently may have handed the Iranians not only the aircraft but its data. Based on the review, a former intelligence official told Fox News that investigators think one of the drone's three major "data streams" began sending back bad information to its U.S.-based operator. A leading question is whether the bad data caused the drone's operator to inadvertently land the aircraft. But it also raises the possibility that the faulty data stream could have prevented the drone from dumping the...

Holloman Air Force Base, which is losing its stealth fighters, will get two new squadrons of F-16 jet fighters, the Pentagon announced Thursday. Officials said Holloman will become a training base for the F-16 aircraft, which is expected to be in use for at least another 20 years. "We look forward to welcoming the incoming squadrons of F-16s to Holloman," said Air Force Col. David Krumm, the 49th Wing commander. "Holloman has outstanding facilities, airspace and people for this new training mission." Holloman is home to two squadrons of F-22s, which will move to Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida,...

Air Force leaders are working to build a new pilot culture in the service, creating a career track designed to turn officers without prior flying experience into operators of remotely piloted aircraft such as the MQ-1 Predator. Officially institutionalized in June as Undergraduate RPA Training, the new course evolved from an experiment nearly two years in the making—called a beta test—which indicated that the syllabus will likely need to continue evolving. A handful of officers have already passed the beta test to learn how to fly RPAs, and were awarded special wings recognizing their achievement. Some of those pilots are...

-- Airmen of the 432d Air Expeditionary Wing made history March 12 when they surpassed the 700,000 flight hour mark in the MQ-1B Predator remotely piloted aircraft. The last 200,000 Predator hours were flown in just over 12 months compared to 19 months to fly the previous 250,000 hours and 12.5 years for the first 250,000 hours. Remotely piloted aircraft are one of the highest demanded assets on today's battlefield, said Col. Peter Gersten, 432d Wing and 432d Air Expeditionary Wing commander. "Over the past year, our Predator fleet has averaged over 16,500 hours per month," Colonel Gersten said. "This...

The MQ-1 Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle's younger, yet larger and stronger, brother, the MQ-9 Reaper arrived March 13 at its new home at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. The remotely piloted aircraft completed initial testing in California, then flew more than 250 miles in two hours to land here. The aircraft was piloted by Lt. Col. Jon Greene, 42nd Attack Squadron commander. Along side him, was his sensor operator Senior Airman Aaron Aguilar, also of the 42nd ATKS. "I am truly honored to be the commander of the Air Force's first MQ-9 attack squadron," said Colonel Greene. Our mission is...