The Air Force is seeking to ramp up by more than half the number of combat air patrols by unmanned aircraft by Fiscal Year 2011, and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., is hoping Grand Forks Air Force Base will get a piece of the action.
He said Wednesday at an unmanned aircraft conference in Grand Forks he initiated that he'd made the request with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz.
The 19 new patrols and their associated units do not yet have a home, and there's plenty of room in Grand Forks as the last of its tanker wings depart late next year. Air Force data shows that between now and the end of September, the base population will be at its nadir at about 2,000.
As of now, as new unmanned aircraft missions arrive, the population is expected to peak at almost 2,700 by the summer of 2012.
The additional combat air patrols could bring even more personnel and potentially a mix of Predator-type aircraft and Global Hawks.
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As an indicator of how much more, Dorgan said the two patrols associated with the Air National Guard's 119th Wing has about 200 personnel.
After fiscal year 2011, the number of unmanned aircraft in U.S. service could further increase by as much as fourfold, according to Maj. Gen. Hank Morrow, who joined Dorgan at the conference.
Morrow is in charge of Air Force operations defending the U.S. homeland and of integrating unmanned aircraft safely with manned aircraft in American airspace.
Reach Tran at (701) 780-1248; (800) 477-6572, ext. 248; or send e-mail to ttran@gfherald.com .
