The U.S. Air Force retired its MQ-1 unmanned aerial vehicle based at Holloman Air Force Base on Feb. 27. Two key person who help pioneer the drone revolution – James G. “Snake” Clark and Abraham Karem – were invited to speak at the retirement ceremony.
An MQ-1 Predator taxies under water from a fire hose during its final flight Feb. 27, 2017 at Holloman Air Force N.M. The MQ-1 Predator has provided many years of service and is being phased out of service as the Air Force transitions to the more capable MQ-9 Reaper. The MQ-1 Predator is an armed, multi-mission, medium-altitude, long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft that is employed primarily as an intelligence-collection asset and secondarily against dynamic execution targets. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt. Stacy Jonsgaard)
The U.S. Navy has ran a series of simulations whereby unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) acting as ‘wingman’ in unmanned/manned teams had to make their own decisions during beyond-visual-range (BVR) air combat missions.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been funding Aurora’s SideArm UAV launch and recovery system for the Tactically Enhanced Reconnaissance Node (Tern) program. A video showing how the actual system works has been posted online.