An MQ-9 Reaper lifted off on the first sortie launched from Hancock Field ANGB, N.Y., on Wednesday, the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Attack Wing announced. The unit’s MQ-9s, though operated by crews at Hancock, have physically been based at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield near Watertown since 2011, pending Federal Aviation Administration clearance to fly from home station. Hancock, located at Syracuse International Airport, began MQ-9 taxi-trials to develop procedures for operating alongside civil air traffic last summer. Aircrews? at Syracuse began flying MQ-9s over Afghanistan in 2009, and the unit also hosts local flight operations, training RPA pilots and sensor operators. After several months’ delay, the 174th ATKW finally received FAA approval, launching and recovering the first Reaper from Hancock on Dec. 16.
Roper: Air Force Shopping for ‘Skyshots’
Oct. 26, 2020
The Air Force is calling on small businesses to pitch new technologies the service can help nurture into “war-winning” capabilities, service acquisition chief Will Roper said Oct. 26. These “Skyshots”—something short of “Moon Shots”—would be comparable to USAF's flying car initiative: requiring sustained investment that companies might not be able…