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The Big 500K
The Big 500K: The Predator un manned aerial vehicles fleet surpassed the mark of 500,000 total flying hours Feb. 18 when an MQ-1 Predator flown by members of the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron at Creech AFB, Nev., eclipsed the milestone during a mission over Iraq. Gen. John Corley, commander of Air Combat Command, said the achievement is “but one example” of airmen's contributions the current war on terror. And, Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, who heads 12th Air Force, said the mark is “a testament to the continued dedications and perseverance” of the airmen of Creech’s 432nd Wing and 432nd Expeditionary Wing, who operate and maintain these General Atomics Aeronautical System-built, armed intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance aircraft. As an indication of their worth today, note that it took roughly 12 years from the Predator’s 1995 inception for the fleet to reach 250,000 flying hours, but only one year and eight months for it to tally the second 250,000 hours, the Air Force said. The Air Force currently operates more than 30 Predator combat air patrols over Afghanistan and Iraq. Each CAP of several aircraft provides 24/7 overhead coverage of a certain area. Corley said Predators accumulate more than 19,000 flight hours per month now—95 percent of the hours are flown in Southwest Asia. (Creech report by SSgt. Alice Moore)
2/25/2009
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Verbatim
Preemptive Action
"Since the [Defense] Department's acceptance of the independent estimates last fall, we've been, in just about every respect, acting as if the program were in a Nunn-McCurdy breach. ... We've been taking all of the mitigating and corrective action that we would take as if there were a Nunn-McCurdy breach."
—Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, discussing with reporters the restructure of the F-35 strike fighter program announced in February 2010 and the probability that the program will soon exceed Nunn-McCurdy cost-monitoring thresholds that would necessitate, per US law, a program review and corrective steps, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2010. |
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Verbatim
Message for Grandma
"She has working for her as a citizen in the United States an Air Force Reserve that has some very talented, capable, patriotic, and willing individuals doing the business to keep this nation free. Just like her generation—the 'Greatest Generation'—was, I am very proud of the folks that we have got. If not the second greatest, then they are an extension of the greatest generation and they are ready, willing, and able to do the things that she would want them to do to make sure we keep our freedoms."
—Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Air Force Reserve chief, responding to a reporter's question on what the reporter should tell his 85-year-old grandmother to convey to her the importance of Air Force Reservists to the nation's security, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 19, 2010.
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