Predator aircraft to stay at Indian Springs

Jace Radke

Tuesday, March 16, 2004 | 9:17 a.m.

Indian Springs will continue to be the only home for the Air Force's remote-piloted Predator aircraft, further insulating Nevada's military bases from possible closure.

"It's certainly a shot in the arm and just the kind of thing we're looking for," said Randy Black, chairman of the new Nevada Military Advocacy Commission. "We've got the remote areas, weather and the airspace to best accomplish the mission of remote-piloted aircraft."

The volunteer commission is a lobbying group with the goal of protecting Nevada's military assets during the Defense Department's upcoming nationwide review of military installations.

Environmental assessments for basing the Predator at California's Edwards and New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Bases has been terminated by Air Combat Command, Air Force officials said Monday.

The decision to eliminate alternative basing for the Predator will add 443 personnel and 12 aircraft to the Indian Springs Auxiliary Field, about 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has said the state's military installations -- including Nellis Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Fallon Naval Air Station and the Hawthorne Army Depot -- appear safe from closure based on Defense Department criteria that will determine which military installations it will recommend for closure or mission changes.

Bases will be reviewed and subject to possible closure next year through the Base Realignment and Closure process, known as BRAC.

Eight criteria will be used in reviewing bases, but the priority will be given to a base's "military value," which includes its current and future capabilities for training, warfighting and readiness, the availability of land and facilities, as well as cost.

Environmental impact, the economic impact on the local community and how a local community can support the base will also be considered.

Pilots are trained to fly Predators at the 2.9 million-acre Nevada Test and Training Range northwest of Las Vegas, and the aircraft have been remotely piloted from Nellis Air Force Base on missions in Iraq and Afghanistan since February 2003.

Currently the Air Force uses RQ-1 and MQ-1 Predators, with the RQ models used for reconnaissance and the MQ models used as weapons platforms for Hellfire missiles.

They can fly between 70 and 120 mph and reach altitudes of 20,000 feet. The MQ models can carry two Hellfire missiles that can strike targets up to five miles away. Predators cost about $3.65 million apiece, and Nellis' 15th and 11th Reconnaissance Squadrons have about 30 to 40 of the aircraft. The 15th, a deployable squadron, and the 11th, a training squadron, are both based at Indian Springs. A new deployable squadron, the 17th, is expected to be fully operational in Indian Springs in August after it gets its allotment of Predators.