In an interesting turnabout, the Air Force is responding to a tightening budget by canceling the much vaunted RQ-4 Global Hawk program and extending the life of the manned U-2 it was intended to replace. The decision reportedly affects the Block 30 Global Hawk, but not the Block 40 or Navy variants.
The Air Force wants to terminate the Block 30 Northrop Read more…
Two 2nd Lts at Beale Air Force Base became the first RQ-4 Global Hawk pilots to graduate the dedicated UAV operator course, which is designed for those who were not previously rated pilots.
The new classification 18X is designated for RPA pilots coming from non-rated career fields as well as Read more…
Matt Pirrello, an ROTC cadet at Ohio University, lost his right leg mid-thigh in a parachuting accident at the US Air Force Academy 18 months ago.
He still wants to be a pilot, but he understands the hurdles in his way.
“If you’re in the Air Force when you’re hurt, it’s a matter of retention,” he said. “If you’re not in the Air Force, it’s a matter of whether they will accept you despite your injuries.”
Others have flown with prosthetic legs Read more…
The unmanned K-MAX helicopter, an experimental UAV deployed to Afghanistan, has reportedly made its first successful resupply mission.
A detachment of Marines from Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1 moved about 3,500 pounds of food and supplies to troops at Combat Outpost Payne using an unmanned K-MAX helicopter on Dec. 17…
The concept is intended to reduce risk to both ground and helicopter-based resupply missions.
Updated: Also the top story at FoxNews.
Purists have for years mocked the Hollywood portrayal of military UAVs. The 2007 Transformers, for example, featured an afterburning Predator.
The Predator has a propeller, so that’s like having an afterburning Cessna 172.
Now, however, reality has started to catch up with fiction. The Air Force has reportedly purchased — and deployed, its single Predator C, which has a jet engine in place of the propeller.
It does not appear to be an afterburning engine, but there’s still time yet…
CIA civilian Gary Powers, infamously shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 in a U-2, will be posthumously awarded a Silver Star by the US Air Force.
The Air Force determined that the U-2 pilot showed “steadfast loyalty” while under harsh interrogation in Soviet prisons… [citing] his “sustained courage” and gallantry despite “cajolery, trickery, insults and threats of death.”
Issues of classification and political strain kept Powers from any Read more…
Fresh off accusations the US military forces its young, impressionable troops to pray in formation, an entire formation of US Marines did so in front of nearly 75,000 football fans.
Marines perform their version of ‘Tebowing’ before the Broncos-Jets game on Nov. 17. (AP Photo/Barry Gutierrez)
Actually, they’re Tebowing. Then again, Tebowing is praying, by definition. And they’re in uniform. These Marines must be Read more…
The Military Times notes the unveiling of a Navy airship at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.
The MZ-3A is the Navy’s scientific test platform for surveillance cameras, radars and other sensors…[used] “to prove LTA [lighter-than-air] has a place in our military construct,” said Cmdr. Jay Steingold.
The slow, long-endurance vehicles are variations on the blimp/dirigible and could fill a variety of roles. The Navy isn’t the only one to have such a program: Read more…
According to the Air Force Times, the Air Force has reported that a manned QF-4 crash in July was caused by a flight control malfunction. A stab actuator disconnected and caused an uncommanded, and uncontrollable, pitch up.
The article notes the $2.4 million Read more…
The Marines have decided to deploy an unmanned helicopter to Afghanistan to conduct cargo delivery operations:
Adm. Bill Shannon, program executive officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons, approved Lockheed Martin/Kaman’s K-MAX unmanned helicopter for a six-month deployment to augment Marine Corps ground and air logistics operations.
The unmanned helicopter has reportedly Read more…
One of the “advantages” of unmanned aerial vehicles is the removal of the human element from much of the operation. In theory, its inability to get tired, make mistakes, or act with emotion may make a UAV a “better” system. In theory.
While the UAV may not be able to get “sick,” it is apparently still vulnerable to computer viruses, as public reports indicate has occurred to both MQ-9s and MQ-1s (which are essentially the same UAV). To be fair, that was likely a result of the “human element,” but the fact remains that UAVs are not always the panacea some may think they are.
An MQ-9 Reaper has crashed on final approach at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. The base reported that the owning squadron was a training unit for the MQ-9.
The AT-6C, a modified version of the T-6 currently used to train US Air Force and Navy pilots, has reportedly been used to deliver LGBs out of Tucson, Arizona. The Air Force Reserve Command Test Center has been testing the AT-6C, which is explicitly not an in-development weapons acquisition program.
Though light attack is not an Air Force procurement program, AATC’s task is to report its findings to senior leaders early next year to help refine requirements…
As if to prove the point, the aircraft has a civilian N-number, rather than a military designation:
There aren’t too many civilian aircraft in the world equipped to Read more…
General Edward Rice, commander of the Air Force Air Education and Training Command, has made (the foreseeable) statement that UAV pilots will someday outnumber all other pilots in the Air Force.
Of course, the birth of the nuclear age foretold the end of the fighter pilot era, and the demise of the dedicated close air support aircraft has been predicted (and proven false) repeatedly. The future is anything but entirely certain.
US Army Specialist Benjamin Halbert recently said
If you can play Xbox, you can fly a Raven.
Unfortunately, that kind of attitude is ultimately how you run airplanes into each other.
The Raven is a rucked-in, hand-launched UAV with a four-foot wingspan. Halbert’s point is probably that it is not complicated to fly – which is true.
But physically flying the UAV is only one Read more…
God and Country is a ministry of ChristianFighterPilot.com.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of any government, military, or religious organization.
Recent Comments