PREDATOR SPY PLANES: Aircraft in high demand

Published: Mar 04, 2006
Source: www.reviewjournal.com



Armed Predator spy planes, in high demand by U.S. battlefield commanders for finding and killing terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, will be operated remotely later this year by a new squadron at Creech Air Force Base, a base spokesman said.

The 19th Attack Squadron will be composed of crews in ground stations who control Predators that employ weapons such as laser-guided Hellfire missiles.

This squadron of MQ-1 Predators and possibly later the new, bigger, faster, bomb-bearing B models, or MQ-9s, will be activated at Creech in the summer or fall, said 1st Lt. Justin McVay, a spokesman for Nellis Air Force Base operations at Creech.

Creech Air Force Base is Nellis' sister airfield at Indian Springs, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.continue..