7/3/2014 - DUKE FIELD, Fla. -- The
919th Special Operations Wing welcomed the 2nd Special Operations
Squadron, its remotely piloted aircraft unit, to the Emerald Coast.
The 2nd SOS, comprised of about 140 Air Force reservists formerly
located at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., began RPA operations in its new
facility at Hurlburt Field, Fla., June 14. Although the unit is at
Hurlburt Field, none of the aircraft will be located there. The RPAs are
flown in various combat theaters throughout the world.
The 2nd SOS Airmen are associated with their active-duty counterparts in
the 3rd SOS, who are assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command's
27th SOW at Cannon AFB, N.M.
Along with the change of scenery, the squadron changed its aircraft as
well, transitioning from the MQ-1 Predator to the MQ-9 Reaper aircraft a
couple of months ago.
The squadron's arrival marks the introduction of RPA operations to
Hurlburt Field. In 2009, when the 2nd SOS was first activated at Nellis,
most of Air Force RPA functions, including AFSOC RPA, were centralized
in Nevada. Now that AFSOC's RPA enterprise has migrated to its
facilities, the move to Hurlburt completes the process of placing AFSOC
RPA operations on AFSOC bases.
Since its inception, the 2nd SOS has flown 57,225 hours on 2,346 combat support sorties.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment