News of the Force=USAF Northcom Gives CAP new Assignment: Surrogate Predator

[wingnut55]

The Air Combat Command has a requirement for high-fidelity air crew training, including training involving the Predator unmanned air vehicle. Use of the Predator UAV is difficult due to real-world operations and difficulty using a UAV in FAA-controlled air space. Two CAP Cessna 182Q aircraft are being modified with the "Surrogate Predator," an advanced sensor system used to support Air Force "Green Flag" training.
    Mission aircraft will be modified. The mission bases for the first "Surrogate Predator" will be at Alexandria, La. The second base will be in North Las Vegas, Nev.
    The first acceptance flight for the No. 1 aircraft is scheduled for Sept. 11-12. CAP air crew training will be scheduled during the 3rd week of September. Academic training will be held Sept. 19-20, followed by three days of flight training.
    The first "Green Flag" missions are scheduled to be flown during the Oct. 7-20 time frame. "Green Flag" exercises typically involve 11 days of flying, eight hours each day, and at least ten times each year, and includes "hunter-killer" scenarios in which the "Surrogate Predator" starts by surveying targets and providing full-motion video to a brigade combat team.
    The CAP will initially start flying five of these days and may be asked to fly on the full 11 days in the future. At present, this work is out-sourced to a private contractor, but by moving the program to the CAP the Air Force can realize substantial cost savings.
    Though funding is a challenge being considered by the commander of Air Force North (AFNORTH) there is a need for near real-time imaging and disaster relief for AFNORTH and the Army's battle lab efforts. There is a possible role for the CAP in these, with an ultimate goal of having 20 turret-mounted packages available for use.

[Eclipse]

This was mentioned at RSC by the CAP-USAF rep, and the next weekend my Wing's commander and staff
received a full briefing on the plans.

It was also mentioned at the NB meeting.

So its real.

[cap235629]

A call went out several months ago for volunteers for this program.  Aircrew had to have certain prerequisites, but this has been in the works for quite some time.

[lordmonar]

This was mentioned at RSC by the CAP-USAF rep, and the next weekend my Wing's commander and staff
received a full briefing on the plans.

It was also mentioned at the NB meeting.

So its real.

Absolutely.....!


This is going to be a major mission for CAP and will only get larger.

AFNORTH wants to have a real time video capability for homeland security missions in addition to the the two Q models for the SUAV program.

They mentioned at the National Conference that the ones used for the homeland security missions will not have all the bells and whisles theat the SUAV birds will have.  But I get the distinct impression that AFNORTH has a lot of top cover missions waiting in the wings for us.

[wingnut55]

Northcom had wanted to upgrade the Archer systems to make them work. The systems would need sensor modifications for vibration and spectrum addition. Northcom was going to foot the bill for two systems. Upgraded systems are already on UAVs. But having an operator in the plane increases capability.

What happened??

[Airrace]

I heard about this several months ago but didn't think it would be a reality. I like the idea and hope we will have funding to make it work for the CAP members.

[Mustang]

A call went out several months ago for volunteers for this program.  Aircrew had to have certain prerequisites,

What prerequisites were being asked for?

[JCJ]

A call went out several months ago for volunteers for this program.  Aircrew had to have certain prerequisites,

What prerequisites were being asked for?

Pilots - Comm Instrument ASEL with military tactical aircraft experience.  Includes, but not necessarily limited to "fast mover" experience.  The military tactical aircraft experience requirement may go away after the initial experience.  Also, must be CAPF 5 (C-182) & 91 qualified.

Other aircrew - observer qualified.  Pilot qualifications preferred (both front seat occupants will need to be pilot qualified)

Some ground personnel as well - usual CAP mission base requirements.

Although the program is not classified, participants must be able to qualify for a secret security clearance.

Participants will need to be able to spend a week at a time at one of the operating bases.  Travel to & from, lodging & per diem are paid.

Send word through your CoC to your Wing DO or CC if qualified & interested.  Right now the main interest is in members who are geographically close to the operating bases (Alexandria, LA & Las Vegas, NV)

[Smokey]

There was a meeting last week just before the Conference.  I was supposed to attend (but the major fire in LA prevented my participation).  The west coast operation will be handled jointly by CAWG and NVWG.  I am the CAWG coordinator and Lt Col Roy Campbell handles it for NVWG.

The ops tempo is rather high and we should get the program up and running out here shortly.

[Mustang]

CAWG can't even cover all its AFRCC taskings with any measure of reliability, how is it going to cover this too?

[sparks]

Since this is a high priority by CAP's main bill payer my guess is the AFRCC mission will suffer. The other thought is the pilots participating in the Predator mission may not be the same people flying the CAWG AFRCC missions. You would have to cross referance missions and names to get a clear picture. If the names are the same and personnel are in short supply youo've identified a problem. 

[Flying Pig]

If they want a good supply of pilots, I could see them dropping the requirement to have been a military pilot. Either that, or the military pilots will start flying the planes for themselves.

[sparks]

An interesting concept, current active duty military pilots flying CAP aircraft if CAP pilots aren't available. That's not the current program but it wouldn't be a huge leap to get there.
The aircraft are already paid for by the Air Force and so are the pilots, no additional costs for them. It could even add to our membership if that became part of the agreement.

[Short Field]

There was a email floating around looking for Observers for this program.  The right seat does not require military pilot experience and if you are a pilot, you can upgrade to the left seat after six months.   They are also looking for mission base personnel and a backseater to operate the sensor.  These are all funded training positions by the AF.  Good luck to the senor operator at ever getting out of the backseat.  Ops tempo should be at least 10 sorties a week, with a week defined as M-F.   

[Eclipse]

Good luck to the senor operator at ever getting out of the backseat.  Ops tempo should be at least 10 sorties a week, with a week defined as M-F.

Why would you want to?  That's where the action is.  An MP/MO ride on these won't be any different than any other CAP mission.

[lordmonar]

An interesting concept, current active duty military pilots flying CAP aircraft if CAP pilots aren't available. That's not the current program but it wouldn't be a huge leap to get there.
The aircraft are already paid for by the Air Force and so are the pilots, no additional costs for them. It could even add to our membership if that became part of the agreement.

Actually we were asked not to use AD personnel for this project...even if they were already CAP members.  Of course in the future we can use them...but for the start up they want to see if we can do it with out tapping the AD supply.

Our goal is to see to it that there is ALWAYS going to be qualified CAP personnel ready and able to meet the mission requirements.

[Flying Pig]

3 crew members, a sensor ball and its related hardware on a 182?  Who did the W&B?

Im kinda following Eclipse here, I think Id rather be the guy operating the gear vs flying trimmed straight and level for hours on end.

[RiverAux]

If they want to limit it to former military pilots, good luck.  This isn't the good old days of CAP.  Seems to me that the person where prior military experience would be of least importance would be the pilot. 

[lordmonar]

If they want to limit it to former military pilots, good luck.  This isn't the good old days of CAP.  Seems to me that the person where prior military experience would be of least importance would be the pilot.

Just goes to show you that you don't know everything 

The purpose of the former AD pilot/Fast mover experince is because these people already understand the military method of deconflicting air space, talking to the JFACS, talking to the airborn controllers, coordinating with the strike packages and dealing military breifing/de-breifing process.   

Any pilot can burn circles in the sky but the tricky part is understanding how your section of sky fits in with all the rest and how you see and avoid a fast mover cutting through your airspace with out turning into a ball of flaming wreakage.

Again.....this is for just the initial phase of the operation....once up and running and we start local training it will be open to more pilots including those with out prior military and fast mover experince.

[RiverAux]

Glad those WWII B-24 pilots in CAP have the skills it takes to do this then.