Posted on Dec 28, 2022
Air Force quietly speeds up plans to eliminate spy planes on the front line of America's fentanyl...
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Could there be two sides to this story?
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/rc-26-has-run-its-useful-life-but-keeping-it-around-costs-air-national-guard-30-million-per-year/
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/rc-26-has-run-its-useful-life-but-keeping-it-around-costs-air-national-guard-30-million-per-year/
Air Force quietly speeds up plans to eliminate spy planes on the front line of America's fentanyl...
Posted from cnn.com
Air National Guard
NGB
Equipment
Posted 2 y ago
Responses: 1
Wasn't even aware this program was still going on.
Back in my INSCOM days (in the 90s), I was aware of the 470th MI Brigade's support to SOUTHCOM's counterdrug. Back then they flew RC-7s and the Columbians loved the sensor packages on it and it was an absolute bane of the cartel's operations (there were even rumors they put out contracts on the plane crew).
I figured that the program had gone away in the intervening years (especially after the tragedy when one of our planes flew into a mountain down there in '99).
I can see the Air Force's view that the RC-26 doesn't organically support its core mission, but then again, there are a LOT of capabilities within DoD that don't and are geared more towards domestic support and/or non-domestic partner support.
After the TONS of money being thrown at things ... Just take some of the $65M that was thrown at salmon restoration and use it to maintain the fleet or take it out of the $410 we're giving to other countries for the securing of their border.
Back in my INSCOM days (in the 90s), I was aware of the 470th MI Brigade's support to SOUTHCOM's counterdrug. Back then they flew RC-7s and the Columbians loved the sensor packages on it and it was an absolute bane of the cartel's operations (there were even rumors they put out contracts on the plane crew).
I figured that the program had gone away in the intervening years (especially after the tragedy when one of our planes flew into a mountain down there in '99).
I can see the Air Force's view that the RC-26 doesn't organically support its core mission, but then again, there are a LOT of capabilities within DoD that don't and are geared more towards domestic support and/or non-domestic partner support.
After the TONS of money being thrown at things ... Just take some of the $65M that was thrown at salmon restoration and use it to maintain the fleet or take it out of the $410 we're giving to other countries for the securing of their border.
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MSgt (Join to see)
I was a little surprised myself that it was still going. The Guard was playing a big role within the drug interdiction mission back in the nineties. We were sending Guard radar squadrons and support personnel all over the Caribbean and Columbia. It isn’t really a shocker how wasteful the DOD can be.
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