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Cockpit of a KC-135 Stratotanker

Predator ground control station

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By Christopher Prawdzik

Airmen warm to UAVs as California establishes first Air National Guard Predator Mission
end folks that are flying this thing. ... Dukes a great example.

MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif. Ask Air Guard or Air Force F-16 pilots a few years ago about unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) interest, and their answers were likely negative. Some might consider it a joke. But this became reality when the same questions arose in 2004, when the Air Force announced two prospective Guard UAV missions in California and Texas. Pile on a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decision that eliminated or changed dozens of Air Guard missions, and everything happened rather quickly. The Guard now has Predator missions slated for Arizona, New York and North Dakota, bringing the total to five. Particularly after BRAC, questions abounded about Air Guard crews and their willingness to make such drastic transitions. Would Air Guardsmen ever want to mentally or physically convert from combat-oriented, adrenalin-fueled war fighter existence to pilots and operators placed in front of a computer thousands of miles from the action? This question went for everyone from boom operators refueling fighters to transport pilots making low-visibility landings in hostile territory. It happened for Californias 163rd Reconnaissance Wing sooner rather than

later, when the former refueling wing officially stood up its MQ-1 Predator UAV mission Nov.18 at March, about 65 miles east of Los Angeles. The official Air National Guard Predator orbit, however, stood up Aug. 15, operating out of Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. While some members transferred out of the unit, its first pilots, sensor operators and mission coordinatorsthe three components that comprise each Predator teamhave completed training and already perform vital missions over the skies of Afghanistan and Iraq. In a Predator, the pilot controls the airplanes flight; the sensor operator mans equipment, such as cameras and weapons systems; and the mission coordinator helps bring everything together to ensure each operation is executed as planned. Eventually they will do it all from California, but part of the operation still works out of Nellis. March also will become the training site to complete the conversion of the 425 wing members of the Predator mission. The unit will get 12 of its own Predators, the first arriving in 2009, but they might have them spread all over the globesome at March, some deployed and others at various maintenance levels. As the overall mission continues to grow, some early concerns were likely unfounded. Those [piloting] skills, believe it or not, are the ones that are probably the best utilized in UAV for the close-air-support kind of roles that were doing, says Col. Randy Ball, the 163rds operations group commander. These are the top-

A little more than three years ago, Capt. Eric Duke Fagerland was flying the F-16 Viper for the Air Force in missions over Iraq. But he soon transitioned to the Predator with the Air Force and joined the Guard to continue that work last October. Even he was a bit surprised about the transition. I thought thered be a lot of things missing in the unmanned world that I had in the manned world, but I found out that youre really doing the same kinds of skill sets, he says. You just have to use them differently on different types of equipment. Many rules are the same, for example. Concern for rules of engagement, when to employ weapons, communicating with other aircraft in the area and controlling the Predator in a given airspace are pretty much the same. The aesthetics are only different. Captain Fagerland says he often has to push himself to maintain situational awareness, primarily because of his separation from the battle space. If youre in the F-16, at night, in the weather, lightning around you and St. El-

Viper as Predator

I thought thered be a lot of things missing in the unmanned world that I had in the manned world, but I found out that youre really doing the same kinds of skill sets.
Capt. Eric Duke Fagerland

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At a Glance: MQ-1 Predator

The MQ-1 Predator is a medium-altitude, long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft. It is actually a system, not just an aircraft. A fully operational system consists of four aircraft (with sensors), a ground control station, a Predator Primary Satellite link and approximately 55 personnel for deployed 24-hour operations. The basic crew for each Predator is one pilot, sensor operator and mission coordinator.

Overview

General Characteristics

Primary Function: Armed reconnaissance,

Manufacturer: General Atomics Aeronautical Power Plant: Rotax 914 four-cylinder engine Length: 27 feet producing 101 horsepower Systems

airborne surveillance and target acquisition

Wingspan: 48.7 feet

Weight: 1,130 pounds empty, maximum takeoff Cruising Speed: Around 84 mph, up to 135 mph Ceiling: 25,000 feet Armament: Two laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire System Cost: $40 million (1997 dollars) anti-tank missiles weight: 2,250 pounds

Height: 6.9 feet

Source: U.S. Air Force

mos fire coming up on the cockpit, all that stuff is affecting you right now, he says. Whereas, if youre sitting in the cockpit of the UAV, you dont have those external influences on you, so you dont feel quite as threatened as you might flying though a thunderstorm in an F-16. He says a big difficulty with the Predator is that a pilot is dealing with a two-dimensional, flat screen, and most of the time the view is through a camera lens. This might take away from some of
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the feel a pilot might get over a battle space. On the other hand, Predator pilots dont worry as much about physical limitations, such as colds and pressure effects on the body because of altitude changes while operating a UAV. Pilots arent the only ones who encountered such a transition in the air, however. Senior Master Sgt. Jim Blucher, now a Predator sensor operator, spent 12 years as a boom operator on a KC-135 tanker for the 163rd and was also taken aback

by the complexityand interestof the Predator mission. Our first impression was we knew that they were manned by intel folks, and we even thought originally you werent wearing flight suits anymore, that you werent really considered a crew member, but you were in this position right next to the pilot, he says. We thought it was more of a youre looking at pictures, youre looking at video type of thing, maybe more analytical rather than hands-on. But he says that was a mistake.

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I agree with Duke, the fact that day-today type of just flying the thing, moving the camera around, looking at stuff that you need to be looking at, that your customer wants to see, theres not a whole lot of adrenalin rush, Sergeant Blucher says. But then theres also a time, probably a couple times a week, that youre flying, that the mission goes very dynamic, and then at that point, the adrenalin does start going. The primary adrenalin driver is ensuring the mission is done right. Captain Fagerland was apprehensive at first and thought people would be getting out left and right, he says. Ill be honest with you, when I found out that I was going to Predators I wasnt happy in active duty, and I got there and went wait a minute, were shooting at stuff, were out there involved 24/7, he says. My old mission, we did the war, came back home, we did peacetime for a long time. ... This one, every single day youre hopping in there and youre supporting a raid, youre watching terrorist house. Colonel Ball, a pilot himself, was a bit skeptical of the mission to begin with. After watching a couple of these [operations] where they actually employed weapons in theater and some of these adrenalin-type missions, dynamic missions, these guys are doing great stuff, theyre helping the troops on the ground, he says. The Predator is definitely not an F-16. While the transition is perhaps no more difficult, its a different learning process altogether. I think the most difficult part ... is their control system, Captain Fagerland says. You have a throttle; you have the stick; and then to access the rest of the airplanes controls you have a menu system, so its a combination of computer access along with stick and rudder. The challenge is that as an F-16 pilot he used hand-on throttle stick technology, which is a relatively easy access system, where the thumbs do a lot of work. Imagine if youre comfortable with driving a car, and now they tell you that youve got to put one hand behind your

Adrenalin Rush

Intricate System

back and you got to press the brake pedal with your left foot; and oh, by the way, the blinkers over here on the passenger side, he says. The Predator itself is not quick access to get to the systems, so that was ... almost like a setback. Sergeant Blucher agrees. Tankers were 1950s animals. While system upgrades were common, regular flight manuals remained virtually the same. The Predator, however, continues to change even in the middle of training. Youd get, ... well, but theyre not doing that anymore because its changed, [from instructors] ... so there are things not in the flight manual at this point that you have on the airplane, that you just learned how to use because thats what they wanted in theater, he says. And if thats what they want, thats what they get. From an engineering standpoint, Sergeant Blucher says, the Predator is very functional, but he says that also takes away from some of the intuitive nature of those operating the system. Basically, software was developed to make Predators fly and operate in the air. But to get them to perform is a bit more difficult for the operator. You cant help being impressed with the technology and what theyve done, Sergeant Blucher says. But as far as guys like us that are used to having sticks and throttles and buttons and toggles, now [you have] your keyboard, [with] deep, deep, deep [paths] into menus, over and over; it takes a little while to get used to. One unforeseen benefit to being on a Predator crew is the contribution from the three key components to completing an operation. Youre actually more of a crew member as a Predator sensor operator than we were as a boom operator, in fact, Sergeant Blucher says. He notes the overlapping and coordinated participation among a Predator crew from writing checklists to backing up pilots on approach and playing an integral part in the mission during emergencies. Captain Fagerland agrees. Youll be watching a house and theyll tell you, If someone gets in that vehicle out front, follow it, he says. [Weve had] several times where someone else has

Youre actually more of a crew member as a Predator sensor operator than we were as a boom operator,
Senior Master Sgt. Jim Blucher

Teamwork

saved a persons bacon, where a guy goes I think its that car, and the other two say, No, were for certain weve been watching it the whole time and its that one on the right. Its kind of a checks and balances [system] between each other to make sure the job gets done right. But this might be only part of one day as the Predator mission remains quite dynamic. Its strange, Captain Fagerland says. Youve got two ground control stations sitting side-by-side; you might fly a couple hours in the one thats flying an Iraq bird; you go have lunch, you come back, and now youre in the one thats flying an air mission in Afghanistan. While varied, the mission itself maintains a certain sense of continuity. Were doing this thing every day, Sergeant Blucher says. Theres times you could be over the same city or in the same sector for weeks at a time because of whatever supported unit youre working with, and you do get to know it extremely well. For example, an improvised explosive device is a prime Predator target. Youll scan the road one day, and you kind of put that into memory, and you scan the road the next day and you actually point out things that were not there the day before, Sergeant Blucher says. Its the same person, the same crews on that same road every single day, and thats kind of what the Guard brings to this whole program, is they bring a lot of continuity to the program that hasnt necessarily always been there. He compares it to the success he had with the 163rds tanker mission. We did that for 13 years, he says. The rotation on the active duty right now for Predator guys, is they typically come in for three years. He jokes that the Guard, instead, will do this mission until they BRAC us again. n
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