Changes in drone ops from the HOA?
An Airman assigned to the 432d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron performs a visual inspection on an MQ-9 Reaper as it prepares to taxi during a routine training mission, Sept. 26, 2012. An MQ-9’s primary missions are close air support, air interdiction, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. (U.S. Air Force photo by 432d Wing/432d Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs)
From Defense Industry Daily:
A US Air Force MQ-1 squadron has been deactivated in Djibouti, raising doubts over the continued use of UAVs in combat operations based out of the area. The 60th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron had flown over 24,000 hours between November 2014 and October 2015. During this period, the MQ-1s neutralized 69 enemy fighters, including five high valued individuals. Based out of Camp Lemonnier, the MQ-1s were involved in operations not only on the African continent with Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), but in the Gulf region as well. It is unclear if other units are operating UAV missions from the base or its network of camps and outposts or if the 60th is to be replaced.
As noted by The Strategy Page last week, in 2013 MQ-1s made up a small slice of the air assets at Lemonnier :
As of 2013 (the date of the leaked documents) Task Force 48-4 (the U.S. Air Force unit in charge of the air operations) had fourteen large UAVs (ten MQ-9 Reapers and four MQ-1 Predators), six manned U-28 aircraft and eight F-15E fighter bombers. The two seat F-15Es carried surveillance gear and could fly long distances, find a target and destroy it with a GPS or laser guided weapon. In addition U.S. Navy ships off the African coast sometimes had MQ-8 and ScanEagle UAVs operated from ships to search inland. The U.S. Navy also had two P-3C maritime patrol aircraft stationed near Camp Lemonnier.
In 2013 most of the air reconnaissance flown out of Camp Lemonnier was for Yemen, where al Qaeda was trying to take control of south Yemen. Most of the remaining air operations were over Somalia, where the local Islamic terrorists (al Shabaab) were taking a beating, partly because the peacekeepers and government forces had American air surveillance working for them. Most of the sorties were for surveillance but there were one or two air strikes a month, usually using UAVs (Reapers and Predators were armed, as were the F-15Es). Eighty percent of these attacks were in Yemen.
Odds are there is a new unit in town that will pick up drone ops from the old French Foreign Legion facility and the beat will go on.
And of course there is always speculation that the RAFs drone force may be involved in the HOA
