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432nd Wing celebrates leadership legacy, welcomes new commander
by Senior Airman Ariel O’Shea
Creech AFB, Nev.
A change of command ceremony marked new begin- nings and honored past legacy as Col. Nicholas Pederson relinquished command of the 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing to Col. Trevor Merrell at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., June 27, 2025.
Pederson has led the 432nd Wing since 2023. Its mis- sion is to operate and support the MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, which provides intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and precision attack capabilities to pro- vide critical support to combat operations and the United States’ national security.
“Thank you for the privilege of my life. You make the difficult look easy and took the fight to the enemy. I am incredibly proud that I will always be able to say that I was a part of the 432nd Wing,” said Pederson.
The 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing, activated in 2012, is the only one of its kind located in the continental United States, and remotely operates the MQ-9 Reaper four different combatant commands.
During the ceremony, Pederson was honored with the Legion of Merit for his service to the United States as Commander. His accomplishments include enabling 358,000 flight hours during 15,600 missions, and dou- bling the remotely piloted aircraft allocated airspace over the Nevada Test and Training Range, which empowered robust training as the Wing implemented the Air Force’s Force Generation model.
After receiving the Legion of Merit, Pederson ad- dressed the crowd and had parting words of wisdom for Merrell and incoming Command Chief Master Sergeant Mark Diehl.
“I wish you both the best of luck and honestly, with the Airmen of this wing, you won’t need luck. You will get to see them do amazing things,” said Pederson.
Merrell assumes his new position as a current member of the 432nd Wing. Since 2023, he has served as the 25th Attack Group commander at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., leading more than 1,000 personnel across five squadrons, located at three geographically separated installations.
In his first time addressing the Airmen now under his command, Merrell said, “To the men and women of the
Air Force photograph by Senior Airman Ariel O’Shea
Col. William Creeden, 15th Air Force deputy commander, hands the 432nd Wing guidon to incoming Col. Trevor Merrell, incoming 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing commander at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., June 27, 2025. The 432d Wing conducts 24/7 persistent attack and reconnaissance combat operations worldwide, while training pilots, combat systems officers, sensor operators, intelligence professionals, maintainers, and support personnel.
432nd Wing, I feel a lot of emotions right now; gratitude, humility, but most of all, I think I will share what both Chief Diehl and I feel—excited. Excited to be here and excited to join this incredible family.”
In his new position, Merrell will oversee redirecting the misssion of the 11th Attack Squadron and the 489th Attack Squadron from satellite launch and recovery to conventional MQ-9 operations, the arrival of a con- tingent of Experimental Operations Unit personnel to conduct early experimental operations with the Col- laborative Combat Aircraft.
Airmen assigned to the 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing stand at attention during a change of command ceremony at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., June 27, 2025. The change of command ceremony is a military tradition that represents a formal transfer of authority and responsibility for a unit from one commanding officer to another.
Air Force photograph by Kimberly Goff
NaSa, from Page 10 _____
NASA began to develop the tools years ago, anchored by the arrival of one of the two F- 15s — an F-15D from the U.S. Air Force — a tactical aircraft delivered without research in- strumentation.
“It showed up as a former war-fighting machine without a research-capable instrumenta- tion system — no telemetry, no HD video, no data recording,” Cheng said. “Now it’s a fully in- strumented research platform.”
The team used both F-15s to validate three key tools:
• A shock wave-measuring device called a near-field shock- sensing probe
• A guidance capability known as an Airborne Location Integrating Geospatial Naviga- tion System
• An Airborne Schlieren Pho- tography System that will allow the capture of images that render
visible the density changes in air caused by the X-59
Before the F-15D’s arrival, Armstrong relied on the second F-15 flown during this campaign — an F-15B typically used to test equipment, train pilots, and support other f light projects. The SCHAMROQ project used the two aircraft to successfully complete “dual ship flights,” a series of flight tests using two aircraft simultaneously. Both aircraft flew in formation car- rying near-field shock-sensing probes and collected data from one another to test the probes and validate the tools under real- world conditions. The data help confirm how shock waves form and evolve during flight.
Keeping things ALIGNed
For the Quesst mission, the F-15D will lead data-gathering efforts using the onboard probe, while the F-15B will serve as the backup. When f lown behind
the X-59, the probe will help measure small pressure changes caused by the shock waves and validate predictions made years ago when the plane’s design was first created.
The schlieren photography systems aboard the F-15s will provide Quesst researchers with crucial data. Other tools, like computer simulations that pre- dict airf low and wind tunnel tests are helpful, but schlieren imagery shows real-world air- flow, especially in tricky zones like the engine and air inlet.
For that system to work cor- rectly, the two aircraft will need to be precisely positioned during the test flights. Their pilots will be using a NASA-developed software tool called the Airborne Location Integrating Geospatial Navigation System (ALIGNS).
“ALIGNS acts as a guid- ance system for the pilots,” said Troy Robillos, a NASA researcher who led development
of ALIGNS. “It shows them where to position the aircraft to either probe a shock wave at a specific point or to get into the correct geometry for schlieren photography.”
The schlieren system involves a handheld high-speed camera with a telescopic lens that cap- tures hundreds of frames per second and visualizes changes in air density — but only if it can use the sun as a backdrop.
“The photographer holds the camera to their chest, aiming out the side of the cockpit canopy at the sun, while the pilot maneu- vers through a 100-foot-wide target zone,” said Edward Haer- ing, a NASA aerospace engineer who leads research on schlieren. “If the sun leaves the frame, we lose that data, so we fly multiple passes to make sure we capture the shot.”
Aligning two fast-moving aircraft against the backdrop of the sun is the most challenging
part. The photographer must capture the aircraft flying across the center of the sun, and even the slightest shift can affect the shot and reduce the quality of the data.
“It’s like trying to take a photo through a straw while flying su- personic,” Robillos said.
But with ALIGNS, the pro- cess is much more accurate. The software runs on ruggedized tablets and uses GPS data from both aircraft to calculate when the aircraft are in position for probing and to capture schlieren imagery. Giving pilots real-time instructions, enabling them to achieve precise positioning.
The X-59 team’s validation milestone for the schlieren imag- ing and other systems confirms that NASA’s core tools for mea- suring shock waves are ready to study the X-59 in flight, checking the aircraft’s unique acoustics to confirm its quieter sonic “thump.”