174th Fighter Wing begins flying the Reaper from Fort Drum

The Air National Guard’s Syracuse-based 174th Fighter Wing began flying MQ-9 Reaper drones out of Fort Drum’s Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield near Watertown on Tuesday.

The fighter wing will fly the remotely piloted planes in restricted airspace around Fort Drum to train pilots and sensor operators working from Syracuse’s Hancock Field. The pilots and sensor operators will come from Air Force active duty, Reserve, Air National Guard and foreign military units.

Approval to operate the training flights was received from the Federal Aviation Administration late last week, officials at the fighter wing said. The unit will initially fly about three training sorties a week in the same restricted airspace once used for F-16 training.

The fighter wing is hoping to eventually obtain the FAA’s permission to fly the Reaper out of Hancock Field, but currently the agency bars remotely piloted planes from unrestricted airspace.

The 174th Fighter Wing was formed in 1947 and has flown a variety of aircraft over the years, including the A-10 and F-16 fighters jets. Since December 2009, the wing has operated Reapers, the newest generation of hunter-killer drones, over Afghanistan from its operations center at Hancock Field. Pilots in Syracuse control the drones via satellite link.

Hancock Field also is home to the Air Force’s only formal Reaper maintenance training facility.

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