The U.S. Air Force has selected Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida as its preferred location to house a new military wing along with 24 units of the General Atomics-built MQ-9 Reaper remotely controlled aircraft.
Tyndall’s MQ-9 Reaper Wing will comprise an operations group that will have mission control elements and launch-and-recovery platforms, as well as a maintenance team, the Air Force said Tuesday.
Air Force secretary Heather Wilson said the service branch wants Tyndall to serve as homebase for the new RPA wing because of the location’s air space, nearby training ranges and weather.
The selection aligns with the Air Combat Command’s efforts to propagate MQ-9-related assignment opportunities under the Culture and Process Improvement Plan.
Wilson could hand down a final basing decision once an environmental analysis of the Tyndall base is completed, the Air Force noted.
The service branch projects that MQ-9s will arrive at the final selected base in 2022 and the airmen who will operate the aircraft in 2020.
