348th RS commander wows crowd at UAS Summit

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. David Dobrydney
  • 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
GRAND FORKS, N.D. --  Among the guests and speakers at the UAS Action Summit held this past week at the Alerus Center here, one stood out.

Lt. Col. Amanda Brandt, 348th Reconnaissance Squadron commander, spoke June 26 to 300 businesspeople, local leaders and national representatives about the successes the 69th Reconnaissance Group at Grand Forks Air Force Base has experienced over the past year.

"I was excited for the opportunity to be able to tell the Grand Forks Community, as well as UAS partners such as Northrup Grumman and the FAA all the amazing strides we have made in the last year," Brandt said later.

Brandt tactfully credited the Grand Forks community, the Base leadership, and FAA with her squadron's success, stressing mutual cooperation as the clear way ahead.

She was stopped in her speech with resounding applause when she briefed the audience on the world record breaking endurance flight the squadron pulled off this spring. On March 29, the 348th RS completed a flight with an RQ-4 Global Hawk lasting 34.3 hours, a new record for a military aircraft without inflight refueling. In addition, the feat was performed with an all-female flight crew.

Other successes Brandt spoke of include bringing the Block 40 online a year early.
"It was the combined support of the base and community that allowed us to become tactically ready to deploy this new technology to support our troops overseas within six months of having it arrive on base," Brandt stressed.

Brandt's colleagues were also impressed when they heard the reaction to the presentation.

"Her presentation was certainly one of the highlights of the conference," said Lt. Col. Catherine Tood, 69th RG director of staff. "Many commented afterwards how entertaining and motivational [her] presentation was."

Dr. Delore Zimmerman, Executive Director of the Red River Valley Research Corridor and host of the summit, remarked that these UAS developments wouldn't be possible without the "mission, innovation and local flight operations led by the RQ-4's worldwide successes."