The U.S. Air Force has established its first remotely piloted aircraft course for electronic combat officers through a collaboration between the 57th Wing, 432nd Wing, 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing and the 26th Weapons Squadron.The Air Force said Wednesday the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper course works to address a demand to have a certified ECO instruction program for both types of squadrons brought by regulations that dictated every wing or squadron weapons and tactics office have graduated and certified electronic combat pilots.
The 15-day three-phase course covers threat jamming preparation and planning functions, RPA integration into satellite communications during simulated flights and a hands-on tactic, technique and procedure execution in support of airborne RPA flight operations.
Creech and Nellis Air Force Bases have graduated a beta class of five airmen that learned RPA’s use of the electromagnetic spectrum including area of operation non-kinetic threats, radio communications, GPS, remote-split operations and Link 16.
