The Air Force could announce changes to remotely piloted aircraft missions as early as next week, including the possibility of greatly expanding operations outside of Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, according to Gen. Hawk Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command.
Carlisle said he expects Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James will shortly announce changes to RPA flights that would help to take the strain off a beleaguered RPA force, including the possibility of drone operations at other air bases.
"We are looking at moving and opening up some other opportunities and basing options for RPA pilots," Carlisle said Tuesday at a Defense Writers Group breakfast.
The service also is looking to bolster Creech itself, including providing more support for airmen and their families, Carlisle said, adding that the current setup makes it "a tough base" for airmen assigned there.
And the Air Force announced in February that leadership was considering allowing enlisted pilots to fly drones, a move which could relieve stress on current pilots and expand career opportunities for some airmen. Carlisle did not specify, however, whether that decision would be part of James' expected announcement.
Carlisle said that RPA operations are part of the "wave of the future," and that the Pentagon needs to be better at recognizing the warfighting contributions made by airmen far away from the front lines.
In addition to RPA flights, the general said, space operations, intelligence gathering and analysis, and cyber operations are all critical to the modern-day military — and usually done on a base.
"I think certainly as an Air Force, I believe as a department, we have to recognize what in-garrison combat ops look like and how we recognize those people for what they're doing in support of those missions," he said.
The changes the Air Force will announce are designed to bring relief to RPA operators who have been working at a high ops tempo for years, Carlisle said.
"You talk to them, they love the mission, they love what they're doing, they know they're part of our success; but they need time to do other things like take vacation, go to school, do different jobs, spend more time with their family. So they need time," he said. "They've been at a surge mode for 15 years for all intents and purposes. We put an RPA into the air war in Serbia and we haven't come back since."
"We still have to build a survivable, sustainable, long-term enterprise in the RPA," the general said. "We couldn't just stay on the ramp we were on because it was unsustainable."
The high rate of operations also has prevented operators from upgrading and deploying drones — such as the MQ-9 Reaper — to their full ability, Carlisle said.
"It is a very, very capable system and it can be used in a variety of ways," he said. "Unfortunately because of the surge, we haven't really been able to expand on all the capabilities it has and use it to its full potential because they're so heavily engaged in the current conflict."
The Air Force has already turned to contractors to provide some RPA capabilities, including conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights. The Air Force decreased drone operations from 65 flights a day to 60 in an effort to lessen the strain on airmen, but looked to defense contractors to help make up for those flights.
Though the contractors are often flying full missions, Carlisle said the Air Force is still dictating what they can and can't do.
"We've used them for a long time, this is not a new concept," he said. "They're not combatants, they're not us in regards to how they can engage and use the platform."
The service has reported as least three crashes in the past eight months, including drones that went down in the Middle East and Africa. Those crashes haven't slowed RPA flights, the general said.
"We have lost some," Carlisle said. "But if you look at the accident rate and the number of hours and how much we're flying them, [they are] pretty safe systems that have been operating and [have] pretty good safety records given the amount we use them."
