Southern Arizona getting Predator squadron

[alicia-w]

Drones will soon rise in southern Arizona skies after a tag team of Gov. Janet Napolitano, Sen. John McCain and congressman Jim Kolbe got unmanned aerial vehicles stationed at two of the region's military installations.

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista will share the fifth RQ-1 Predator squadron active in the U.S. military. The Arizona Air National Guard squadron joins three Air Force squadrons operating in Nevada and a fourth run by the California Air National Guard.

Once fully operational, about 350 personnel will come to the area as part of the new squadron, said Maj. Paul Aguirre, Arizona National Guard spokesman.

The new unit will be deployed on missions worldwide.

"New missions, new personnel and new equipment are hard to come by in this time of dwindling resources," Aguirre said. "This is a real feather in the cap for the Arizona Air National Guard."

The Predator's role is expanding in the military because it can fly surveillance - and occasionally attack - missions with the pilot on the ground a continent away, Aguirre said.

The MQ-1 Predator is a system, not just an aircraft. A fully operational system consists of four aircraft (with sensors), a ground control station, a Predator Primary Satellite Link, and approximately 55 personnel for deployed 24-hour operations, according to a military fact sheet.

In a Jan. 12 letter to National Guard chief Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, Napolitano said putting the aircraft close to the border in the hands of the Arizona Air National Guard, which has had no problem recruiting the personnel to run the program, would be in the military's best interest.

Will they be used along the border to try to stop illegal immigration?

Officials aren't saying.

Napolitano has assigned certain Guard units to the border to help federal officials head off illegal immigrants, but it is too early to tell if Predators will assist that effort.

Aguirre said the squadron will start forming in June. Pilots will likely be based at D-M.

[Aslkahuna]

There is already one Predator-this one operated by the Border Patrol flying the Border out of FHU. My team provided Met support during the testing phase of the Predator.

Steve

[alicia-w]

That one is a Predator B. The Predator squadron will be Predator A.

[Aslkahuna]

Yep, too bad though, a Predator loaded with Hellfire missiles could be useful against those incursions by the Mexican Military.

Steve

[alicia-w]

Predator A has hellfires. Predator B is a new aircraft design, bigger engine and all that.

MQ-1 (Predator A) http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=122

MQ-9 (Predator B)
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app2/q-9.html

[Aslkahuna]

We see the them flying around here all of the time (or can if we can find them in the sky-something that's easier at night when they have the running lights on which they don't when patrolling the Border). They are very quiet so they are hard to hear (the Army Hunters and Shadows are the same way) and their loiter capabilities are impressive as the specs for the Army UAVs call for them to be able to fly on one tank of gas for at least 24 hours. The Army UAVs are smaller and and are truck launched while the Predators at FHU fly out fo either Libby AAF or the Rugge-Hamilton UAV Airstrip on the West Range of the Post. FHU is the DOD UAV Training Center.

Steve

[alicia-w]

FHU is actually the Army UAV Training Center, not DoD. The AF training is in Nevada, the guard does their training there too.

[Aslkahuna]

USAF also flies out of Rugge-Hamilton and went so far as to install an ASOS there.

Steve