By Scott R. Gourley

hortly after the December 7, 1941, changed its name to Creech Air Force Base attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army (AFB). The designation honors Gen. Wilbur L. began building a training camp near (Bill) Creech, U.S. Air Force, commander of the community of Indian Springs, Nev., Tactical Air Command from 1978 to 1984. about 45 miles north of Las Vegas. Today Creech AFB serves as home to Air Force By the end of February 1943, the camp units, including the 432nd Wing “Hunters” was being used as a divert field and base for and their MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper air-to-air gunnery training. Following several unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). In addition, decades of transitional changes, in 2005, Indian Creech is also home to the Joint Unmanned Air- Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field officially craft Systems Center of Excellence (JUAS COE).

The 432nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron spearheads the first ever blue- suit launch of the MQ-9 Reaper aircraft from Creech Air Force Base, Nev.

U.S. Air Force/Lawrence Crespo

January 2009 I ARMY 43 An MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle makes a low approach while another waits for takeoff clearance at Creech Air Force Base. The 11th Re- connaissance Squadron at Creech AFB prepares pilots, sensor operators and other specialists for worldwide intelligence, surveillance and reconnais- sance missions. The Predator can carry two Hell- fire air-to-surface missiles in addition to various cameras and synthetic-aperture radar. alenca .V “The COE was born as a result of discus- sions between the services and the Joint Staff on executive agencies for unmanned aircraft

systems,” explains Lt. Col. Ron Misak, U.S. ce/MSgt. Robert W Army, part of the center’s Command Opera- tions Group. “The compromise that they ar- Air For rived at was the establishment of a Joint Un- U.S. manned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence.” what the training requirements alone would be for the “One of the important milestones for our evolution in UAS operating in the NAS. The number we came up with our brief history was the realignment under U.S. Joint from the services was about 1.1 million flight hours a year Forces Command (USJFCOM) in 2007,” said Lt. Col. Jeff using the NAS,” Col. Misak said. White, U.S. Army, a member of the COE command staff. According to Capt. Steve Baxter, U.S. Navy, a member of “Prior to that realignment, the JUAS COE was assigned to the JUAS COE senior staff, “not much had happened” in the Joint Staff J-8. But the realignment allowed us to leverage exploring these issues between 2002 and 2005. a combatant command and all of the diverse subelements, “I was amazed to see that the topic was still on the table directorates and subordinate commands within USJFCOM in 2005,” he said. “What this organization has done is re- to increase our foothold in the UAS discussions.” ally one of the most significant movements forward to get As approved in USJFCOM Directive 5170.3, the center’s UAS into the National Airspace—not all NAS but the areas official charter reads: “Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems we need to be in to affect training.” Center of Excellence (JUAS COE) provides support to the For example, early UAS training flights took place at lo- joint operator and services by facilitating the development cations like Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., or the ranges at and integration of common unmanned aircraft system op- Fort Huachuca, Ariz. erating standards, capabilities, concepts, technologies, doc- “Now almost every Infantry battalion has a Raven sys- trine, tactics, techniques, procedures and training. JUAS tem that they have to fly somewhere,” Capt. Baxter said. COE leverages existing combatant command and service “Every Infantry BCT has a Shadow platoon that has to fly initiatives and activities to provide joint integrated solu- somewhere. We are expanding beyond the active duty tions and improved interoperability.” bases to guys in National Guard armories around the The COE’s critical work began long before its realign- country who will be looking for training areas and want- ment under USJFCOM. Initial activities during 2005 and ing to put these things up into the National Airspace. Even 2006 led to the first joint UAS concept of operations Predators are shifting to the National Guard in places like (CONOPS), Edition 1. Briefed to the Joint Requirements California, Texas, Nevada and North Dakota, with New Oversight Council (JROC) in February 2007, the concept York to follow. They are either already flying or are getting received its JROC approval memo a month later. ready to fly either Predator or Reaper.” “Establishment of the COE included a list of taskings,” Working out the myriad technicalities surrounding Col. Misak observed. “The first one was, primarily, we UAS/NAS issues has mandated close cooperation be- would like you to look at CONOPS on how to deploy these tween all services and the U.S. Federal Aviation Adminis- things. So that was probably the ‘capstone’ project to get tration. Capt. Baxter noted that the challenges extend well things started.” beyond those of NAS and the continental United States. In addition to looking at the military aspects of UAS “You also get into international airspace requirements,” concept of operations, the Vice Chairman of the Joint he said. “For example, when you have a brigade stationed Chiefs of Staff tasked COE with studying the requirements in Germany, how do you put a Shadow up into interna- associated with operating the systems in the National Air- tional airspace?” space System (NAS). Part of the underlying challenge that the JUAS COE ex- “We had no idea what the requirements were, so we un- amination process is addressing involves the identification dertook a study and picked the target year 2013 to see of common core skills that every UAS operator should pos- sess in order to carry out NAS operations. SCOTT R. GOURLEY, a freelance writer, is a contributing edi- “I guess our bumper sticker, if we had one, would be tor to ARMY Magazine. ‘Operational employment and training is how we affect

44 ARMY I January 2009 UAS,’” Col. Misak said. “Particularly tied to the airspace is ners as more of an operational document for users and the requirement to look at training requirements at a joint staffs at the operational/joint task force level in the em- operational level for unmanned aircraft in the NAS. Some ployment of UAS, according to Col. Misak. of these systems have been pulled out of ACTDs [ad- “It doesn’t present the way, but rather a way of employ- vanced concept technology development programs] early ing UAS. It goes through different scenarios and different and deployed without going through the traditional acqui- types of activities, including Department of Homeland Se- sition system—the whole DOTMLPF [doctrine, organiza- curity support, ways that you can employ them and con- tion, training, materiel, leadership and education, person- siderations for employment,” Col. Misak said. nel and facilities] development. So part of our JROC Essential to the development of the CONOPS was study- tasking is to look at training requirements to get these air- ing how the UAS are actually being used in theater. craft into the NAS.” “Through the process of answering [the JROC approval Coinciding with this process, the COE is working to memo], we have been able to highlight these vehicles that standardize UAS identifiers across the services. Instead of are doing things that nobody thought about five years classes of UAS, as in the U.S. Army Future Combat Sys- ago,” Capt. Baxter said. “Maybe they thought about them tems (FCS), or tiers of UAS, as in the U.S. Marine Corps, in isolation but not in one 18-hour mission.” the JUAS COE has developed five group designations that He added: “The good news is that the doctrine and pro- will place UAS discussions into a commonly understood cedures initially written for MCO [major combat opera- framework. tion] were flexible enough to be adapted to defeat the en- Noting that “an Army warrant officer working with us emy in a counterinsurgency environment. The doctrine here came up with the initial concept,” Capt. Baxter ex- was flexible enough and the people adaptive enough to plained, “we base the groups on static qualities of the vehi- make it a success story.” cles, including weight, typical operating altitude and typi- Acknowledging that CONOPS “can mean different cal operating speed—things that won’t change as technol- things to different people,” Capt. Baxter continued: “We’ve ogy changes.” had discussions with other folks outside of the command, “If nothing else, it goes a long way toward allowing all and even here inside the command, about ‘What’s the re- of the services, as well as all of the government and civil- quirement for a UAS concept of operations?’ After all, ian agencies, to have a common language, so that when we there isn’t a ‘fighter CONOPS’ or a ‘bomber CONOPS.’ But say Group 4, everybody at the table will have a mental pic- this is a document that is directed toward the joint task ture of what a Group 4 UAS is,” he said. force planner/operational level planner to allow that per- The new groups were contained in the JUAS COE con- son to become exposed to, perhaps for the first time, UAS cept of operations Edition 2, which went to the Joint Re- possibilities that he might not have thought about before.” quirements Oversight Council in October. (Approval was Although the CONOPS is not materially focused, COE pending when ARMY went to press.) representatives noted that they “do keep track of new ma- In addition to affecting training and presenting the new teriel capabilities” in areas like payloads so that they may group designations, CONOPS is represented by COE plan- be included in CONOPS. “We keep abreast of current capabilities and emerging Tech Sgt. Michael Stewart (left) and Senior Airman capabilities to integrate them into the CONOPS,” noted Valero Mendoza carry a practice AGM-114P Hellfire Col. White. “But our role would be something along the missile away from an MQ-9 Reaper at Creech Air Force lines of, ‘Given this capability—whatever that capability Base. SSgt. Jawann Wilson is in the background. is—how might it best be employed?’” Upcoming COE activities will likely range from “best of breed” studies on uses for UAS full-motion video and training to a look at contested airspace and counter-UAS operations. In terms of messages for today’s warfighters, Col. Misak observed: “Overall, unmanned aircraft systems save lives. Because they are unmanned, they can do the dangerous jobs so we don’t have to put people at risk. We’re working to make the processes work even better to save more lives.” “Our mission is to provide UAS support to our cus- tomers—the services, combatant commands and, ulti- mately, the joint warfighters,” added Col. White. “And that support comes in delivering tangible products that can help increase the effectiveness of these systems and sol-

Air Force/Lance Cheung diers’ understanding of the complicated issues surround-

U.S. ing them.” (

January 2009 I ARMY 45