A U.S. Air Force team could be at Ellsworth Air Base within a week to consider the facility for a new mission in unmanned drone deployment, Sen. John Thune said Tuesday.
Thune, R-S.D., told members of the Ellsworth Task Force during a video conference call from Washington, D.C., that the Air Force wants to visit the four bases under consideration soon. The military hopes to decide by June where to establish the drone base, with staffing to begin in 2011, he said.
Thune said he had been briefed on the issue earlier Tuesday by Gen. William Fraser, a former commander of the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth. Fraser now serves as commander of the Air Combat Command headquarters at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, and will be a key officer in determining where to place the staff and equipment for two squadrons of Remotely Piloted Vehicles.
Thune said Fraser’s past experience at Ellsworth could be useful to efforts to make the facility home to the new drone mission.
“I think that’s an advantage to us,” Thune said. “I don’t think it hurts at all to have somebody who’s familiar with all the assets Ellsworth brings.”
Fraser also is familiar with the strong working relationship between Ellsworth, Rapid City, Box Elder and the state, which Thune said is another advantage.
“The great relationship you all have with the base … I think it’s an intangible that’s real important,” he said.
Landing the mission could bring 560 new active duty airmen, Air Force civilians, contractor personnel and their families to Ellsworth and Rapid City, according to Thune.
If that’s all the good news, the bad might be that Fraser’s current command is headquartered at Langley, which is one of the other three Air Force bases -- out of a total of 211 -- chosen as finalists for the drone mission. Fraser also has served in command positions at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, another finalist. The fourth is Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.
But Thune said Ellsworth will compete well, since there is no geographic disadvantage in the drone-based selection process. With upgrades in recent years, including a new mission as a financial servicing center, Ellsworth has the space, infrastructure and community support to house the new mission well, he said. The new communications systems brought to Ellsworth to support the financial services center could be an advantage for Ellsworth, he has said.
“It’s certainly, I think, in our wheelhouse,” Thune said.
The new drone base is essential as the Air Force expands the number and use of unmanned aircraft, he said. The drones themselves will not be kept at the mission headquarters, but will be stationed “in remote locations,” where they can be deployed for reconnaissance and sometimes air-strike missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Thune said. The control stations and the pilots who operate the drones by computer systems will be at the base chosen for the new mission, he said.
“It’s remarkable. That technology is amazing,” he said.
The new unmanned aerial vehicle mission is part of the Air Force’s effort to increase the number of MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance combat air patrols operating over Afghanistan and Iraq.
Every day, the Air Force has 41 of the remotely piloted vehicles flying 24-hour missions supporting military operations in their efforts overseas. The goal is to have 65 of the drones flying by the end of fiscal year 2013.
The drones would not be housed at Ellsworth, but the personnel and ground control stations supporting the remotely controlled aircraft would be here.
...
