"It
was the first time we had put live weapons into boats and participated
in maritime (exercises)," said Capt. Timothy Ford, a 26th Weapons
Squadron flight commander. "For our (RPA) community it's a big
step forward, it's a mission set we had looked at for a long time and
training opportunities over water are not very prevalent (at Nellis)."
In addition to this being the first time an RPA squadron hit a maritime
target; it was also a chance to integrate with other aircraft including
A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-35A Lightning IIs.
"It's the first opportunity for us to fly with the F-35, talk to
each other and coordinate attacks between the two platforms and ensure
deconfliction while we're doing that," said Capt. Ryan Cross, a
26th WPS training officer.
Another high note of the exercise was that it gave the RPA community
a chance to demonstrate to operators of other aircraft, the unique capabilities
the MQ-9 can bring to the fight.
The MQ-9 is able to stay in a potentially hostile area for hours. It
can collect intelligence and pass that information on to other aircraft
when it becomes a more volatile situation.
"As soon as it does become a situation where the shooting happens,
we're the ones with the situational awareness because we've been there
so long and we're able to pass that on to other fighters as they check
in and build their situational awareness," Ford said. "That's
our role in a lot of mission sets. It's nice to be able to prove it
in a maritime environment."
Through this exercise, the MQ-9 demonstrated its abilities in destroying
sea-going targets, integrating and deconflicting with other aircraft,
as well as being able to stay in an area far longer than any other platform.
Ford stated, now that they have built relationships with other aircraft
and proven the abilities of the MQ-9, it will hopefully open doors to
more training opportunities around the country.
The 26th WPS is a squadron assigned to the U.S. Air Force Weapons School,
which trains tactical experts and leaders of Airmen skilled in the art
of integrated battlespace dominance across the land, air, space and
cyber domains.
By Senior Airman Thomas Spangler, 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
/ Published April 02, 2015
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