Nellis Predator squadron stands by

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2001 | 11:05 a.m.

Flying 8,000 feet above the Nevada Test Site about noon Tuesday, the Predator, an unmanned single-prop plane, recorded images of construction workers resting alongside U.S. 95.

From a trailer about 26 miles south at the Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Air Field, a pilot and two sensor technicians watched the scene on several video screens before directing the drone north to the Mercury public swimming pool.

They'd seen it all before. The reconnaissance mission was part of normal training exercises for the airmen of the 11th Reconnaissance Squadron, part of the 57th Wing based about 30 miles south, at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.

But operations are more focused these days. The 500 soldiers of the 11th and 15th Reconnaissance Squadrons have been on standby since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

They could be sent overseas with as little as 48 hours' notice, in squads of 55 airmen for every four of the $3.2 million planes that are mobilized, Lt. Col. Paul Geier, commander of the 11th Reconnaissance Squadron, said. Geier has asked troops to stay within an eight-hour drive of the base.

"The time used to be measured by air travel, but now we rely more on driving," Geier said.

Staff Sgt. Kathleen Mahoney, a sensor technician, said that when her daughter Daniella, a first-grader, returns home from school, she washes the girl's clothes and repacks them in a travel bag. Mahoney's husband, who is also in the Air Force, has been stationed in Honduras the past 14 months and isn't due back until April. If Mahoney is called to duty, her daughter will move in with Mahoney's mother.

"She's basically packed in a bag. But it doesn't bother her," Mahoney said. "And I've had a lot of support from my family. They're eager for us to take action."

The 11th and 15th Reconnaissance Squadrons train the only airmen to pilot the unmanned spy aircraft.

Geier would not comment on potential missions that may be ordered for the two units, but described roles the plane has played recently in Yugoslavia and Kuwait.

Introduced in 1995, he said, the planes have enabled the military to monitor targets more safely and for longer periods.

The Air Force flew the planes this spring during national elections in Yugoslavia, monitoring election polls and crowds for potential disturbances. The elections allowed for the first popular vote after the ouster of former President Slobodan Milosevic.

In Kuwait the planes monitor artillery movements of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to ensure that "no-drive zones," established by the United Nations after the Persian Gulf War, are not violated.

The Taliban ruling militia in Afghanistan last weekend claimed to have shot down one of the unmanned spy planes. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld confirmed Monday only that U.S. forces had lost contact with the plane, according to news reports.

Iraq also says it shot down U.S. unmanned spy planes in August and on Sept. 11, the same day as the terrorist attacks. The U.S. government has declined to verify those claims.

The unmanned planes can monitor targets for 30 hours or more at altitudes from 10,000 feet to 30,000 feet. They can range as far as 400 miles from the mobile command station, sending data via a turret equipped with a variable zoom camera, a high-powered fixed zoom camera and a heat-sensing infrared camera. The plane also has radar capabilities. During a long-range mission, several ground flight crews can take shifts without interrupting reconnaissance objectives.

The plane has a wingspan of 49 feet and has a cruising speed of about 120 knots, running on a relatively quiet four-cylinder, 85-horsepower engine.