Unmanned bomber is an eye in the sky

CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nevada | In a top-secret facility only 40 minutes from the hustle and bustle of the Las Vegas strip, two Air Force pilots prepared for takeoff on a mission to support troops in combat.

Lt. Col. Christopher Gough and Staff Sgt. Jonah Graw, with the 42nd Attack Squadron, were “flying” a plane halfway around the world, one of the military’s most precious, secret and controversial assets: a bomber called the MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial System, otherwise known as the Reaper.

Grim Reaper is what it is sometimes called. The medium- to high-altitude aircraft can carry up to 14 Hellfire missiles — seven times more than its predecessor, the Predator. The Reaper’s main mission is to “hunt and kill,” but the pilots operate the craft from the safety of this air base in Indian Springs, Nev.

“In a fighter, you can only see what you see and you can only give what you can give,” said Col. Gough, a former F-16 pilot and commander of the squadron. He said the Air Force personnel involved in flying the Reaper and Predator provide better intelligence without risking the casualties of physical combat.

“Inside this aircraft, you can put time on hold,” Col. Gough said. He counts on his crew of analysts, ground commanders and other experts to help guide him to hot spots in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Their mission is to protect troops in harm’s way and search for and destroy adversaries. The experience, however, can seem curiously detached.

On a recent Nevada afternoon, Col. Gough and Sgt. Graw, an expert in surveillance intelligence, “flew” over numerous Afghan villages and farmlands unbeknownst to the Afghans sleeping below. Not even the goats in the fields, which were clearly visible on streaming video, stirred as the drone flew silently above the Afghan night.

Air Force officials say that the Predator and Reaper are just the first in a revolution in cyber and warfare technology that will take pilots out of the skies and put them behind computers and joysticks.

Three star Lt. Gen. Michael W. Peterson, chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer for the Air Force, said in a recent interview that the use of unmanned aircraft in Afghanistan has been unprecedented and that projects to enhance the planes’ capabilities are under way.

“We believe we’ll have a computer with as much computing power as a human no later than 2012,” Gen. Peterson said in reference to meetings he had with IBM and other computer technology firms. “We want the aircraft to initially think through the problem and offer the pilot a couple of solutions to choose from.”

Although the technology is still being developed, he said he hopes that one day advanced aircraft will be able to “plan ahead” and evaluate changes in the mission if required.

Currently, there are 31 MQ-1 Predators and three MQ-9 Reapers flying combat air patrols, said Col. Christopher R. Chambliss, commander of the 432nd Wing and 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing, at Creech.

He said that more combat air patrols are needed and that there are not enough to meet the demands of commanders in the field.

Col. Chambliss said the Air Force is planning on adding 19 remotely piloted combat air patrols, for a total of 50 by 2011.

Story Continues →