Attack UAV squadron deployed to Iraq this week

of that time spent in combat. The MQ-9 Reaper is twice as fast as the Predator — it has a 900-horsepower turbo-prop engine, compared to the 119-horsepower Predator engine — and can carry far more ordnance: Fourteen Hellfire missiles as compared to two. Weighing five tons gross, the Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator, and its size — 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan — makes it comparable to the Air Force’s workhorse A-10 attack plane. It can fly twice as fast and twice as high — 25,000 ft compared to 50,000 ft - as the Predator.

Back to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan: The Air Force says the MQ-9 Reaper will use sensors to find, fix, track, and target critical emerging time-sensitive targets. The Air Force is developing the ability to operate multiple aircraft from a single ground station, thus augmenting the overall combat effectiveness over the battlefield. General Atomics has built at least nine of the MQ-9s at a cost of $69 million per set of four aircraft, with ground equipment. The Air Force’s 432nd Wing, a UAV unit formally established 1 May, will eventually fly 60 Reapers and 160 Predators. The numbers to be assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan will be classified.

First unmanned aircraft systems wing

Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, is home to the newly reactivated U.S. Air Force 432nd Wing. The 432nd Wing consists of six operations squadrons and a maintenance squadron for the Air Force fleet of 60 MQ-1 Predator and six MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles. The Air Force’s first unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) wing stood up 1 May, and Col. Christopher Chambliss, who assumed command of the 432nd, said: “This is a monumental day for the Air Force. Having a wing dedicated to unmanned aircraft systems is a logical and important step in continuing the Air Force’s role in being the world’s greatest air and space power, and is equally critical to the Air Force’s most important customers, the American warfighters.”

Ryan Whitney writes in Space War that the reactivation of this wing is a historic event, but it should not be considered a starting point, Chambliss said. Forming an unmanned aircraft systems wing has been in the work for about four years. “The new wing is an evolution in the Air Force’s UAS program and provides the next step forward in medium- and high-altitude unmanned air systems,” he said. Originally, the 432nd Observation Group was established to train cadre for new groups and wings. In 1954 it began training in tactical reconnaissance and in 1958 was redesignated as a wing. In 1966 the wing was assigned to Udorn, Thailand, where it flew both reconnaissance and tactical fighter missions over Southeast Asia. In 1984 the 432nd was activated at Misawa Air Base, Japan. It remained there until deactivation in October 1994.

“Although this standup is a landmark achievement for the Air Force and demonstrates our dedication to aiding the fight in the war on terrorism, for those who use the Air Force’s UAS assets on a day-to-day basis — the Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airmen on the ground, and even the pilots flying the MQ-1’s and MQ-9’s — this transition of authority will seem transparent,” said Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, 12th Air Force commander.

UASs have been “an unblinking eye that can pack a punch when necessary,” said Colonel Chambliss, referring to the MQ-1 Predator’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities coupled with its abilities to fire Hellfire missiles.