Page 5 - Nellis AFB Bullseye 8-21-15

BULLSEYE Creech News 5August 21, 2015

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RPAs prove vital in fight against ISIL

By Tech. Sgt. Nadine Barclay

432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nev.— U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo
From August 2014 to August 2015, the
432nd Wing has directly supported An MQ-9 Reaper performs touch-and-go flight patterns June 13, 2014, at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. The Reaper is an armed, multi-
Operation Inherent Resolve, a U.S. mission, medium-altitude, long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft that is employed primarily as an intelligence-collection asset and
Central Command and partner nation’s secondarily against dynamic execution targets.
campaign to conduct targeted airstrikes
in Iraq and Syria as part of the compre- means of communication (computer, is that these aircrew members will see Aug. 8, Ryan said morale is high and
hensive strategy to degrade and defeat phone and airborne radio) to integrate sustained direct combat support very the men and women of his unit are the
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. with other assets. The challenge facing early in their Air Force careers, which is most professional people he has had the
our crews is how to leverage the strengths less common in other aircraft platforms. pleasure of working with.
“OIR has highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of these various commu-
of (remotely piloted aircraft) operations, nication means, and we have made great “From the very beginning, I’ve felt I’ve “Every day they surprise me with
namely a single-weapon system that strides in OIR to optimize this.” had impact in the mission that we are how they act and react to the chang-
can (find, fix, track, target, engage, and doing,” Jeffrey said. “I don’t feel I would ing environment of war,” Ryan said. “I
assess) with flexibility, endurance and As part of this integration process, have had this experience and impact had am extremely proud of what I do. Our
precision,” said Lt. Col. Erik, the 15th manned aircraft like the Navy F-18 I been in another career field. It’s a great motto is P2P, which is short for perform
Reconnaissance Squadron commander. Hornets use RPAs to buddy lase targets. thing to be in the RPA enterprise as a to prevent. The meaning behind it is
“In addition, we have the communica- brand new Airman starting out.” that we perform at our best to keep sol-
tions necessary to reach back to multiple To some, changing the misconcep- diers from deploying into harm’s way. It
supporting agencies, and disseminate tions associated with this revolutionary In the RPA career field today, the pushes us to do our jobs, which is to save
our (intelligence, surveillance and recon- aircraft is sometimes a mission in itself, average age of Airmen flying combat American lives.”
naissance) feed real-time to multiple end but illustrating the platforms capability missions is 18-24 years old, something
users. This builds situational awareness in combat is setting the stage to clear rarely seen in traditionally manned air- According to the Defense Depart-
of the (area of responsibility), which is up misunderstandings associated with craft career fields. ment, as of Aug. 7, 2015, airstrikes have
especially important due to the dynamic RPAs. been responsible for damaging or de-
nature of OIR combat operations.” “I can’t be more proud of our crews stroying more than 10,684 targets that
“Before OIR many people may not and the professional airmanship they further deny the enemy the capability
While the RPA mission in Iraq and have known what an RPA was truly exhibit on a daily basis,” Erik said. “Due to inflict damage to America or its allies.
Syria initially focused on information capable of,” Ryan said. “Now before to the growth of the RPA community,
gathering and battlespace awareness, combatant commanders take the risk of we have a large percentage of relatively “It’s an honor to know that we are able
the 432nd WG’s involvement quickly potentially losing a manned aircraft they young crew members. Based on the to lead the way, and rapidly execute mis-
escalated as the demand for ISR grew to will come to us and ask if we’ve found nature of our combat operations, they sions in a new AOR based on orders from
accurately capture real-time operations. them targets. We have 24/7 coverage, so build experience at a much faster rate our national leadership,” Erik said. “It’s
we know what the battlefield looks like than the norm. Their pride, motivation also true that this is an honor shared by
“Things progressed very quickly, we and how it has changed. They’re using and discipline are unquestionable and the entire RPA community. Collectively,
were playing a reactive part, now we are us for their situational awareness which directly lead to our success in combat we present unique and effective airpower
much more established and proactive,” improves their safety as well.” operations.” options for our combatant commanders
said Senior Airman Jeffery, a MQ-1B to achieve their objectives.”
Predator intelligence instructor. “The A unique aspect of the RPA enterprise As OIR passed the one year mark on
nature of the mission is much more clear
and precise then it was at the beginning
which has allowed us to be as effective
as possible.”

In OIR, the 432nd WG/432nd Air
Expeditionary Wing has contributed
approximately 4,300 sorties, employed
1,000 weapons and conducted 400 ‘bud-
dy lase.’ A buddy lase is when aircrew
from one aircraft uses a combat laser to
guide weapons released from another
aircraft to a target. A majority of the
sorties and strikes were performed by the
432nd WG. The strikes are an experience
Capt. Ryan, a 15th RS Predator pilot,
knows all too well.

“I had the first RPA strike of OIR,”
Ryan recalled. “It was exciting to know
what the threat was and to protect the
guys on the ground was exhilarating. I
felt like I was able to directly contribute.”

Although many sorties were flown
by RPAs, joint efforts capitalized on the
capabilities of the joint warfighter thus
integrating manned and unmanned as-
sets to assist friendly ground forces.

“This has been one of the biggest im-
provements to RPA operations in recent
years,” Erik said. “One of the strengths of
RPA cockpits is the ability to use multiple