EGLIN AIR REQUIRE BASE, Fla. — The 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron finished the preliminary of MQ-9A Reaper ground and flight screening with the Angry Kitten ALQ-167 Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) Pod at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada Apr. 10-28, 2023.
The pod supplies the MQ-9 raised Electronic Attack (EA) ability versus appropriate ground and air-borne risks. This ability boosts survivability for the Reaper and other friendly forces, and makes complex foe preparation efforts. The test concentrated on showing the idea of carrying out EA from the MQ-9 to supply functional organizers brand-new force application choices when challenging Pacing Challenge risks.
“The goal is to expand the mission sets the MQ-9 can accomplish,” said Maj. Aaron Aguilar, 556th TES assistant director of operations. “The proliferation and persistence of MQ-9s in theater allows us to fill traditional platform capability gaps that may be present. Our goal is to augment assets that already fill this role so they can focus and prioritize efforts in areas they are best suited for.”
The Angry Kitten Pod represents the start of what the 556th TES wishes to accomplish with the MQ-9 in the EA sphere. Through involvement in future Large Force Exercises (LFEs) such as Red Flag 23-3 and incorporating with the U.S. Air Force Weapons School, the squadron intends to more establish Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) versus complicated target sets.
“Electronic Attack on the MQ-9 is a compelling capability,” said Lt. Col. Michael Chmielewski, 556th TES leader. “15 hours of persistent noise integrated with a large force package will affect an adversary, require them to take some form of scalable action to honor it, and gets at the heart of strategic deterrence.”
Earlier in April, the 556th TES likewise performed a Cold Integrated Combat Turn on an MQ-9 airplane, that included synchronised refueling and rearming of 4 hellfires.
Overall, the occasion took less than 25 minutes, a record that squashes the basic three-hour normal turn time for the MQ-9 and just included 4 minutes to the formerly shown quick refuel treatments that did not consist of weapon reloading.
“The Cold Integrated Combat Turn furthers our validation efforts on the MQ-9 agile combat employment model and further maximizes the MQ-9’s relevancy across the continuum of strategic competition and the phases of combat operations in all theaters that require agile operations,” said Chmielewski.
Following the successes in April, the 556th TES is slated to deal with several tests throughout Northern Edge 2023, a joint field training workout at numerous places around Alaska, start May 4, 2023.
For more info, contact 1st Lt Lindsey Heflin, Public Affairs Advisor for the 53rd Wing at 850-598-3283 or [email protected].
The 53rd Wing refines lethality by checking brand-new functional abilities and examining fielded abilities. They bring the future faster by responding to warfighter needs for incorporated, multi-domain abilities.
