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27 local leaders attend UAS tour at Beale AFB

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Anastasia Wasem
  • 319th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  Twenty-seven local civic leaders from Grand Forks toured Beale Air Force Base, Calif. April 15 and 16 to learn about the Global Hawk and Unmanned Aerial Systems mission.

With Grand Forks AFB's mission changing from KC-135 Stratotanker's to UAS's, the tour gave civic leaders a chance to learn about the relevancy and importance of UAS operations within the Air Force. Beale AFB is one of the few bases within the Air Force that houses the RQ-4 Global Hawk.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for us to be able to better understand UAV's in general and especially the Global Hawk so that we can see what the potential is for Grand Forks," said Phyllis Johnson, vice-president for Research and Economic Development at the University of North Dakota and an attendee on the tour.

While on the two-day tour at Beale AFB, the civic leaders were able to get up-close and personal with two different Global Hawks, as well as tour the various systems responsible for communications between the pilot and the aircraft, the launch and recovery element and the mission control element.

"We're going to learn a lot about what the capabilities are here at Beale, we're going to learn a lot about what we still need to do in Grand Forks to prepare our base for the mission," said Barry Wilfahrt, president of The Chamber of Commerce. "We'll take that information back to the community, back to the other leaders and visit with them about what we need to do to be prepared for the arrival of Global Hawk in Grand Forks."

Besides touring the facilities and equipment, the civic leaders also gained first-hand experience on what is necessary for a UAS mission. The civic leaders were able to talk to Col. Paul McGillicuddy, 9th Reconnaissance Wing commander, Global Hawk pilots as well as civic leaders from the areas surrounding Beale AFB.

"We're getting very in depth briefings on what the Global Hawk is capable of, what the platform can do, what the future for the program is and all the issues that go along with how to own, operate and maintain the aircraft," said Col. Don Shaffer, 319th Air Refueling Wing commander. "What that will do for our civic leaders is allow them to go back and tell the story."

The last KC-135 squadron at Grand Forks AFB will deactivate in December in anticipation for the arrival of the UAS mission in 2011.