Aviation Week reports, “U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is looking to go big with a new autonomy effort, moving from solely focusing on using MQ-9 Reapers as host to its C-130 variants. The command for the past two years has been working on its Adaptive Airborne Enterprise (A2E) effort, which would use Reapers to air-launch smaller uncrewed air vehicles (UAV) to allow one service member to operate multiple UAVs at once.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Tag: Automatic Land-And-Take-Off
US Air Force to Update MQ-9A Fleet With Automatic Land-And-Take-Off Capability
FlightGlobal reports that US Air Force “plans to start updating its fleet of MQ-9A Reapers with an automatic land-and-take-off capability starting in the spring of 2022.” The update “would allow aircrew to land or take off the UAV remotely using a satellite link. The MQ-9 would also use the electro-optical and infrared cameras in its targeting pod to survey a prospective runway.” Lt. Col. Nathaniel Totten, 49th Wing deputy commander at Holloman Air Force Base, said, “Previously, MQ-9s could only land and take off if there was a local crew to line-of-sight link with the aircraft. … With this new capability, an MQ-9 can theoretically land anywhere there is a runway large enough.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)