Email   Print   Share By Heather Graham-Ashley, Sentinel News Editor

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Maj. Curtis Byron, battalion executive officer, 15th MI Bn., presents a unit coin to Bob Ulrigg, air traffic and airspace officer, RGAAF, in appreciation of his efforts to enhance the partnership between the unit and airfield officials. Heather Graham-Ashley, Sentinel News Editor

Maintainers and operators from Co. A, 15th MI Bn., conduct pre-flight checks on an MQ-5B Hunter UAS at Robert Gray Army Airfied following a ceremony marking the battalion’s 1,000 incident-free flight hours on the Hunter since beginning operations at Fort Hood. The unit has flown Hunters out of RGAAF since May 2006 as the only battalion certified to fly an unmanned system from a joint military and civilian airfield in the U.S. Heather Graham-Ashley, Sentinel News Editor

Maintainers and operators from the 15th MI Bn. conduct pre-flight checks on a MQ-5B Hunter UAS following a ceremony Friday to mark the unit’s 1,000 incident-free flight hours on the Hunter. The safety milestone was met July 24. Heather Graham-Ashley, Sentinel News Editor

Being the first and only unmanned aerial program to permanently share an airfield with manned civilian and military aircraft in the U.S. was not enough. Now, they can add safest unmanned aerial program in the Army.

Fort Hood’s Company A, 15th Military Intelligence Battalion hit a milestone July 24 when its unmanned aerial systems program completed 1,000 incident-free flight hours at Robert Gray’s joint-use airfield.

Friday, the battalion hosted a ceremony on the Army airfield to mark the occasion and offer thanks to those who have made what was formerly considered impossible into a reality.

Joined by RGAAF officials, Soldiers in the battalion celebrated the 1,000-hour safety achievement.

During the ceremony Friday, officials offered their congratulations and remarked about the impact the UAS program at Fort Hood has had on operations and capabilities worldwide.

“You guys are setting the course for UAS in an airfield environment,” Trace Crawford, airfield manager, said. “I know how important what you are doing is to Army aviation. UAS is the future of Army aviation.”

Unmanned systems such as the Hunter bring technology to the battlefield that significantly aids in any unit’s fight by providing real-time surveillance capabilities to troops and commanders on the ground, Maj. Curt Byron, battalion executive officer, said.

“All services use UAS and ISR s(intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance program),” Byron said. “They are an important aspect of today and future fights. We can put them on the battlefield ahead of or above friendly forces and they save a lot of lives by providing various types of intelligence on friendly, hostile and unknown forces.”

Department of Defense-wide, UAS vehicles have proven valuable assets, but Fort Hood and the 15th MI Bn. have been leading from the front.

“We are setting the trend for the Army,” Bob Ulrigg, air traffic and airspace officer, Robert Gray Army Airfield, said.

As the only program with the Federal Aviation Administration certification to simultaneously conduct both manned and unmanned aircraft missions within the National Airspace System, Army firsts are nothing unusual to the battalion.

They were not the first to use the Hunter, but the battalion initially made history May 23, 2006, when they were the first to launch and land an MQ-5B Hunter UAS from a joint-use airport, Robert Gray Army Airfield. Before that, the battalion used an unimproved airstrip at North Fort Hood, Capt. Mike Weipert, 15th MI Bn., said.

They are the first, only and safest UAS program to share an airfield with civilian and military air traffic, and most people do not even know the Hunters are out there.

“Most people flying in and out of the Killeen airport are unaware that they are sharing the runway and air space with aircraft that are unmanned,” Weipert said.

Before the May 2006 launch, having a UAS share airspace and runways with manned aircraft was considered an impossible feat since a civilian airport almost always requires a pilot or operator to have a professional pilot’s license.

“There is no place else in the world that does this,” Weipert said.

The Hunter UAS is a multi-mission reconnaissance vehicle that provides over-watch and surveillance in real-time to ground troops and commanders.

The Hunter was the first UAS to be used by a conventional Army unit in a deployed environment, Weipert added.

Hunters are flown mainly for training purposes here, but were also used during last year’s range fires to give officials on the ground an overhead look at the blaze that eventually charred more than 11,000 acres.

At Fort Hood, the safety milestone involved about 100 takeoffs and landings to meet the safety mark, Sgt. Kyle Johnson, an instructor/operator with Co. A, 15th MI Bn., said.

With the battalion’s Soldiers serving continuous deployments since 2007, the safety mark took an extended amount of time to meet, Weipert said.

The battalion’s Co. A is the only element within the 15th MI to operate UAS, but the company is set up like other flight companies, Weipert said. There are some other differences between Co. A and the battalion’s other manned flight companies.

Unlike manned Army aviation programs, enlisted personnel can fly UAS vehicles.

“Schooling takes about 18 months,” Johnson said.

Weipert, an Army fixed-wing aviator, said the UAS operators receive about as much training to operate their systems as pilots do.

“We don’t treat UAS operators any different than other pilots,” he

said.