Last week, the 174th Air Force Fighter Wing flew its last manned combat sortie over Iraq in F-16s, which have now been mothballed in favor of MQ-9 Reapers. This makes it the first combat-specific wing to ditch conventional aircraft entirely and toward a force of all unmanned robo-drones piloted from the ground. Welcome to the…
What’s not to like about the sneaky and efficient drone, a robotic aircraft controlled from afar that can put the hurt on enemies while assuring that none of us good guys die in the process? The radio-controlled warplanes have come a long way since those first Predator surveillance drones, and now the more-powerful Reaper hunter-killer…