Angus Batey has been contributing to various titles within the Aviation Week Network since 2009. He has reported from military bases, industrial facilities, trade shows and conferences, on topics ranging from defense and space to business aviation, advanced air mobility and cybersecurity.
Of all the demands made on British armed forces in Afghanistan, the need for forward air controllers (FACs) is among the most pressing. So it is surprising to find that the Joint Forward Air Control Training and Standards Unit (Jfactsu), which trains FACs from every branch of the U.K. military, is housed in a dilapidated prefab building here.
You don’t have to join the Taliban to get on the wrong side of a UAV pilot: Suggesting that remotely operating an armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle over Afghanistan from Creech AFB, Nev., is a suitable job for a video gamer will do the trick. “I hate the ‘X-Box generation’ comparison,” says Steve Smith, squadron leader of the Royal Air Force’s 39 Sqdn. “The Reaper is a real-size airplane flying in real airspace. Drafting the cook to fly it would be a disaster.”
