Guard to fly drones over Adirondacks
The New York Air National Guard plans to deploy unmanned combat aircraft on training missions over the Adirondacks this summer.
But most people on the ground won't even notice they're in the air, the military says.
The MQ-9 Reaper is expected to begin training flights from Fort Drum sometime in June, Col. Chuck "Spider" Dorsey, vice wing commander of the Guard's 174th Fighter Wing, based at Hancock Field in Syracuse, told the state Adirondack Park Agency's Park Policy and Planning Committee on Thursday. The MQ-9's training exercises over the Adirondacks will include intelligence surveillance, strike control and reconnaissance, combat search and rescue, and carrying out simulated attacks on targets, he said.
The squadron plans to fly the planes no lower than 5,000 feet above ground level, but it doesn't have Federal Aviation Administration approval yet to fly below 18,000 feet over the Adirondacks. Dorsey said it could take another two years to secure that approval.
Thursday's presentation was informational, since the APA has no jurisdiction over the training flights. Agency commissioners asked several questions but raised no concerns with the plan.
"We're assuring the public that the APA Enforcement Committee is not using this surveillance technology," Commissioner Richard Booth quipped at the end of the presentation.
Dorsey said the airspace over the Adirondacks, which is used regularly for military flight training, is ideal for training pilots how to remotely fly the MQ-9.
"It's critical for us to have a large block of airspace where you can do your maneuvers without being constrained by the geography of the area," he said. "We also have to go to a remote area to have the least impact on the least number of people, and this is the largest military training airspace in the northeastern United States."
The 174th Fighter Wing used to train F-16 pilots in the Adirondacks but the squadron has been converting to MQ-9s over the past three years and no longer uses F-16s.
Since 2009, the 174th has been flying MQ-9s in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, with the pilot based in Syracuse and the aircraft in Afghanistan.
"The aircraft does image gathering and transmission to Army commanders and often directly supports convoys or Army troop formations to show them what's around the next corner, and they're also carrying munitions to support those Army troops if they come into contact with the enemy," Dorsey said. "The training we're going to be doing here is going to exactly mirror that skill set we need to support Army troops on the ground."
The MQ-9 has a 66-foot wing span, weighs about 10,000 pounds and has a cruising speed of up to 200 miles per hour. The plane is also used by the Army, Navy, Air Force and U.S. Border Patrol. It can be in the air for long periods of time, up to 20 hours if it's not equipped with weapons, 15 hours if it's fully loaded.
While a MQ-9 doesn't have a pilot in it, Dorsey said it's still piloted. The military calls it a "remotely piloted aircraft."
"There's a whole bunch of pilots and sensor operators that are manning this system," he said. "It's anything but unmanned. It's very heavily manned."
Chris Knight writes for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise of Saranac Lake.
leaderherald.com/page/content.detail/id/534021/Guard-to-fly-drones-over-Adirondacks.html
Jan. 15, 2011