New Units, New Missions

摘要

A great deal of change in the Air National Guard's force structure has occurred since 2005. Today, six states (Arizona, California, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, and Texas) are home to remotely piloted aircraft units in the Air Guard, and ANG flies 25 percent of overseas drone combat air patrols. In New York, the 174th Fighter Wing at Hancock Field in Syracuse is the first Guard unit to operate the MQ-9 Reaper, and is also home to the Air Force's only Reaper maintenance schoolhouse. The Guard has stood up a remote split operations unit for MQ-1 Predator operations at the Springfield, Ohio, ANG base. It was a follow-on mission to the wing's F-16 training mission, and the ANG hopes to replicate the effort at other locations. Senior ANG leadership is working with Air Combat Command to increase RPA mission locations to get up to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' goal of 65 continuous orbits in Southwest Asia-with plans in the works for up to five more RPA units in the Guard.