Tag Archives: UAV

Air Force UPT Packages Due November 29th

Active duty officers who are eligible and interested in becoming aicrew have until November 29th to submit applications for the “UFT Selection Board:”

The board will review candidates for fiscal year 2014/2015 training requirements in the pilot, remotely piloted aircraft, combat systems officer and air battle manager categories.

Applicants must meet age and commission date criteria – born April 1, 1984 or later and total federal service commissioned date after April 1, 2009 – and must have squadron commander or equivalent endorsement, said Maj. Andrew Larson, AFPC assignments officer.

One of the age-old questions is whether someone who wants to be a pilot can increase his chances of selection by saying he’ll also volunteer for RPAs Read more

Air Force Unable to Fill Unmanned Cockpits

US Air force Col Bradley Hoaglan wrote a report from the Brookings Institution saying the Air Force can’t fill its annual requirements for unmanned remotely piloted aircraft (UAV/RPA) operators. As reported at the Stars and Stripes,

In 2012, the Air Force filled only 82 percent of its remotely piloted aircraft, or RPA, training slots, while virtually all manned aircraft slots were filled. And as of early this year…the Air Force Academy had only 12 volunteers for its 40 RPA training slots.

The Air Force apparently attributes the problem to a lower Read more

Liberty U: Michael Weinstein Calls Christian Aviation Education “Horrifying”

Michael Weinstein — a self-described advocate of religious freedom — apparently has no limits to his disdain for Christianity.

Sojourners Magazine recently published an article on Liberty University’s School of Aeronautics — more specifically, their concentration in Unmanned Aerial Systems.  Provocatively titled “Drones for Christ,” author David Swanson sets out to describe

How Jerry Falwell’s Liberty U.—the world’s largest Christian university—became an evangelist for drone warfare.

Problem is, Swanson doesn’t succeed in his telling, because Liberty doesn’t Read more

Unmanned Helo Crashes in Afghanistan. Not Pilot Error.

The much-ballyhooed K-MAX unmanned helicopter, which has been making deliveries for the US Marines in Afghanistan, apparently suffered a crash a few weeks ago.

The original story contained this line:

While Marine officials did not release a cause for the crash, [PA officer Capt. Matthew Beers] ruled out pilot error, saying the aircraft was in autonomous mode at the time it went down.

The reports were ultimately edited to remove Read more

UAV Does Touch and Go on Carrier

Just days after its first carrier launch, the Navy’s X-47B, the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D), successfully did a touch and go on the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) last week.

Don Blottenberger, UCAS-D Deputy Program manager, commented, “This landing, rubber hitting deck, is extremely fulfilling for the team and is the culmination of years of relative navigation development. Now, we are set to demonstrate the final pieces of the demonstration.”

But does it wear dogtags when it plays volleyball on the beach?

(That’s a Top Gun reference, for those UPT students who weren’t even born when that movie came out…)

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SecDef Eliminates Controversial Drone Medal

After much controversy, the “Distinguished Warfare Medal,” which was purportedly designed to recognize those who contribute to the battlefront without being there, has been eliminated by the Secretary of Defense:

Just two months after its creation, Hagel said the Pentagon will replace the DWM with a device that can be attached to other previously existing medals.

The pejoratively-nicknamed “drone medal” was the subject of Read more

New Military Drone Medal Will Outrank Bronze Star

The US military has created a new combat medal — which includes those who don’t actually go into combat:

Modern technology enables service members with special training and capabilities to more directly and precisely impact military operations at times far from the battlefield.  The Distinguished Warfare Medal will be awarded in the name of the secretary of defense to service members whose extraordinary achievements, regardless of their distance to the traditional combat theater, deserve distinct department-wide recognition. 

Technically, it seems any member of the military is eligible for the Distinguished Warfare Medal (DWM), including those involved in direct combat — so long as their extraordinary act did not involve “valor.”  However, the fact the citation criteria so Read more

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