Air Force officials have released the criteria for basing of the regular Air Force MQ-1/9 remote split operations ground control stations.
The basing criteria, announced on June 22, were approved by the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force and include factors such as mission requirements, training requirements, facilities and infrastructure, support capacity, environmental impacts and cost.
These criteria will be used to select candidates for the last three locations to receive an active duty RSO unit, officials said. With the release of the criteria the Air Force will begin the process of evaluating installations across the defined enterprise to prepare the candidate basing lists for Air Force senior leaders’ approval.
“The Air Force uses a deliberate, repeatable and transparent process to address our basing needs,” said Kathleen Ferguson, the Air Force deputy assistant secretary for installations. “These criteria will help to ensure that all aspects for basing of this important training are considered.”
The primary mission of an RSO unit is to support the remotely piloted aircraft that conduct close air support, air interdiction, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. RSOs consist of launching a remotely piloted aircraft via line-of-sight operations from one location, and controlling the aircraft remotely from a mission control element operated at another location beyond line-of-sight.
The release of the candidate bases for the MQ-1/9 RSO is expected in the fall of 2011. After the release of the candidate bases, the formal environmental impact analysis process will begin, allowing communities around each candidate base to participate and provide input.
Source: Air Combat Command