Hickam sized up as base for drone squadron

COURTESY U.S. AIR FORCE
Courtesy U.S. Air Force Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam is among three possibilities as a base for an unmanned aerial vehicle squadron of 280 people. The squadron would remotely pilot drones like the MQ-9 Reaper, above.

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The Air Force is considering basing an unmanned aerial vehicle squadron of 280 people at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam that would control MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones far from Hawaii’s shores.

Besides Hickam, Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., are candidate bases for the ground-control station.

No remotely piloted aircraft would be assigned to the selected base, only people and associated equipment, the Air Force said.

Under the Air Force’s "remote split operations" construct, a launch and recovery element launches a drone via line-of-sight from one location, typically outside the United States, and another squadron controls the aircraft remotely from a U.S.-based station operating beyond line of sight.

The Air Force expects to announce the preferred location in December.

"The strategic basing process will help identify which location is best suited to link this important mission with combatant commander requirements," Kathleen Ferguson, the Air Force’s deputy assistant secretary for installations, said in a news release.

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With remote split operations, the Air Force flies the UAV from a home station using satellite links, and maintains a small deployed contingent at operating locations to launch, recover and maintain aircraft.

The approach is used by the Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The MQ-1B Predator can carry two laser-guided Hellfire missiles, while the larger MQ-9B Reaper carries four Hellfires.

In the next 10 years, the Pentagon plans to buy about 730 new medium-size and large UAVs at a cost of about $36.9 billion through 2020, according to a June Congressional Budget Office report.

The bulk of the military’s planned spending is for bigger UAVs such as the Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk. Predators and Reapers are designed to conduct surveillance missions or attack ground targets, while the Global Hawk is used for surveillance.

The Air Force had 14 jet-powered Global Hawks, 175 MQ-1 Predators and about 40 MQ-9 Reapers, according to the Congressional Budget Office.