Drones Facility Puts Holloman At The Helm Of New Form Of Warfare скачать в хорошем качестве

Drones Facility Puts Holloman At The Helm Of New Form Of Warfare

While the federal government has been cutting military budgets over the last 2 years- the Holloman remotely piloted Aircraft training program has been growing. Students in the remotely piloted aircraft facility at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo are training with two different unmanned aircrafts or drones The MQ1 "Predator" and the more powerful MQ-9 "Reaper". But not before racking hours and hours of training on simulators doing virtual missions. "At the moment we have been tracking this vehicle here it has obviously pulled up and there is another guy in a bit of armor so of course this is a simulation and how we would train here at Holloman is get the pilot and sensor operate to keep track of the vehicle at all times and report anything suspicious" he says. That's Sion, he can't share his last name because of security reasons. He came to Holloman on exchange from the British Armed forces to train drone pilots. But in Great Britain...he was operating weapons systems on manned aircraft. "I used to deploy quite a lot and our job was maritime surveillance and we would track submarines - I also did overland missions" he says. But Sion doesn't man aircraft anymore and he is now part of the 49th Wing. He says the shift to Remote Piloted Aircraft hasn't been that big of an adjustment. "The only difference between this job and what I used to do and doing this job is the geographical location and that fact that we are sat here at 1G- Everything else is practically identical' he says. But training squadron commander Lt. Calvin Powell says drones are taking air force capability above and beyond anything possible using conventional airplanes. "You are removing the human entity from the aircraft you no longer have to worry about caring for that individual and so what it allows us to do is keep our airplanes airborne for much longer periods of time" he says. "It gives what we refer to as the unblinking eye on a target potentially so you are able to track a target for much longer period of time without potentially losing that target ever in that amount of time" he says. Trainer Sion says surveillance is the main mission for drones. But he says being on the ground with ease of access to intelligence and communication means when weapon systems do have to be used shots are taken only after rigorous consideration from commanders with full awareness of what is around the target. "All the other tools we have to aid the mission we could just pick up the phone we can use the instant messages we can speak directly to the intelligence staff" he says. Powell says for pilots and drone operators the shift is as much psychological as it geographic he says taking pilots and operators out of the heat of battle allows every single use of force to be deliberate and precise ultimately minimizing civilian deaths and collateral damage. "It is definitely a benefit of being able to stay on the station being able to watch the target develop the awareness around the target to minimize their collateral affects" he says. But critics and human rights groups say these same technological capabilities have paved the way for civilian deaths, that won't be accounted for. Currently the White House doesn't have to reveal the number of casualties from covert US drone strikes. A Senate bill introduced in May this year would change that and require the number of people killed or injured by covert US drone strikes to be made public. Powell acknowledges that there is room for human errors -- but he says civilian deaths are in nobody's interest. "We are very aware that civilian causalities in war have a tremendously adverse strategic affect on our operations and so we do everything that is absolutely within our power to minimize that and I believe RPA's have great opportunity to enhance that capability" he says. Powell says the demand and need for drone operators is ongoing as is the controversy about this new era of warfare.