{"id":16023,"date":"2023-06-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=16023"},"modified":"2023-06-22T06:48:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T06:48:15","slug":"mq-9-reaper-completes-first-mission-using-dirt-landing-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=16023","title":{"rendered":"MQ-9 Reaper completes first mission using dirt landing zone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SANDERSON, Texas (AFNS) — \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just south of Fort Stockton is one of the largest private armed forces training centers in the country, the Nine Mile Training Center<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 an expansive terrain offering privacy from prying eyes and the perfect opportunity to unleash the MQ-9 Reaper<\/strong><\/a> remotely piloted aircraft.<\/p>\n

At this remote dirt strip in West Texas, members from the 2nd Special Operations Squadron, 727th Special Operations Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and 311th Special Operations Intelligence Squadron teamed up with Airmen from the 26th Special Tactics Squadron out of Cannon Air Force Base<\/strong><\/a>, New Mexico, June 15, to carve their next milestone into Air Force Special Operations Command<\/strong><\/a> history.<\/p>\n

Working together, the air commandos conducted the first MQ-9 landing on a dirt landing zone.<\/p>\n

“This is a significant achievement for Air Force Reserve Command<\/strong><\/a>, AFSOC, the MQ-9 community and the joint force as a whole,\u201d said Lt. Col. Brian Flanigan, 2nd SOS director of operations. \u201cThis team of aircrew, maintainers and special tactics Airmen have proven the Reaper can operate anywhere in the world and is no longer beholden to the \u2018leash\u2019 of perfectly paved runways or line-of-sight antennas traditionally used to takeoff and land the aircraft.\u201d
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Historically, the MQ-9 has taken off and landed via line-of-sight of antennas, with aircrew members manually flying the aircraft. Now, the MQ-9 can literally takeoff and land from anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

Flanigan was quick to point out how this new concept meets the AFRC\u2019s priorities of \u2018Ready Now\u2019 and \u2018transforming for the future.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThis capability will be critical in \u2018tomorrow\u2019s fight\u2019 and nests perfectly with the Air Force\u2019s Agile Combat Employment<\/strong><\/a> concept that focuses on smaller footprints, distributed operations and increased survivability while generating combat power,\u201d Flanigan said. \u201cWe are demonstrating what is possible when you leverage citizen air commandos and our diverse backgrounds to take an existing capability like [satellite launch and recovery] and apply it to the future fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 12th Aircraft Maintenance Unit from the 727th Special Operations Aircraft Maintenance Squadron supported the effort with a very small footprint to the austere location using ACE techniques, tactics and procedures developed by the 12th AMU.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative was significant in terms of refining maintenance ACE capabilities because it provided insight into how the aircraft handles landing in an austere environment,\u201d said Maj. Doniell Mojazza, 727th SOAMXS director of operations. \u201cThis scenario both challenged and empowered 12th AMU maintainers to assess risk utilizing their expertise and innovation to ensure aircraft air worthiness and mission success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team is not only using the MQ-9 SLR capability to access short, narrow and unprepared places, but also using it in creative ways to offer \u2018off the menu\u2019 options not traditionally provided by RPAs. This was demonstrated by their use of a travel pod attached to the aircraft to execute a critical resupply of the 26th STS on the dirt landing zone.
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“We call it \u2018Reaper Express,\u2019 which is essentially just using a travel pod to develop an operational concept of delivering critical items to austere locations using the MQ-9,\u201d Flanigan said. \u201cIt may not be able to carry much, but what it can hold, might be the difference between getting that critical aircraft part to an isolated airfield or bringing in a blood supply for casualties sustained during a base attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the MQ-9 has no demand shortage with its traditional role in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance or its ability to quickly land and execute an engine running offload could be a secondary or tertiary mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis provides options compared to waiting multiple weeks until intra-theater airlift can support,\u201d Flanigan said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re also finding through the series of exercises we\u2019ve executed, is that the \u2018fight tomorrow\u2019 capabilities we\u2019ve been demonstrating is rapidly becoming a \u2018fight tonight\u2019 capability the joint force is wanting now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collective contributions of active duty and Reserve members working together provided a glimpse of what is possible as transformation continues throughout the RPA enterprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are continuing to expand MQ-9 Reaper capabilities,\u201d said Maj. Dan Carlson, 2nd SOS MQ-9 chief pilot. \u201cThe unique ability to maneuver the MQ-9 to operate anytime, anyplace is a relatively new capability and one that is transforming how we prepare for tomorrow\u2019s fight as well as today\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The certification exercise also provided a venue for intelligence analysts to contribute and further enhance the STS mission regardless of where they operate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are innovating ways to provide geospatial intelligence to downrange forces,\u201d said Capt. Courtney Cook, 311th Special Operations Intelligence Squadron assistant director of operations. \u201cThe opportunity to support this was huge for our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

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U.S. Air Force Logo<\/title><\/p><\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SANDERSON, Texas (AFNS) — \u00a0 Just south of Fort Stockton is one of the largest private armed forces training centers in the country, the Nine Mile Training Center \u2014 an expansive terrain offering privacy from prying eyes and the perfect opportunity to unleash the MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft. At this remote dirt strip in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16023"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16026,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16023\/revisions\/16026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}