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Maintainers begin weekend training on Global Hawk

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Luke Johnson
  • 940th Air Refueling WIng Public Affairs
BEALE AIR FORCE, Calif. --  The 940th Air Refueling Wing reached another milestone in January in its transformation to a reconnaissance mission. Aircraft maintainers in the 13th Reconnaissance Squadron trained for the first time during a unit training assembly weekend on an RQ-4 Global Hawk here.

According to Lt. Col. John Welch, 13th RS commander, working on Global Hawks during UTAs will help traditional reservists get the necessary instruction they need as maintainers on the unmanned aerial reconnaissance aircraft.

"This is a significant step forward for us," he said. "Most of our people have lots of experience with the KC-135 and no experience with the Global Hawk. Having access to the aircraft during UTAs will allow us to get our troops qualified and trained."

Colonel Welch said his Air Force Reserve Command unit "will never own" Global Hawk aircraft, so his people worked closely with the Regular Air Force's 9th Maintenance Group to coordinate use of the aircraft on training weekends.

Before January the 13th RS reservists depended upon active-duty maintainers to sign off tasks for them. Now the squadron has enough maintainers to sign off tasks for reservists during training weekends.

Since the Global Hawk is the Air Force's new high-altitude, long-endurance intelligence and reconnaissance aircraft, training Air Force Reserve maintainers to augment active-duty units is a top priority for Colonel Welch.

"The active-duty side is running 24-hour shifts for training to get people qualified on the Global Hawk," he said. "It is a challenge to get traditional reservists trained during the week. Now that the 940th can use the aircraft during the UTAs, we can get our reservists trained."

Staff Sgt. George Engleheart, a 13th RS avionics technician, said training on Global Hawks during training weekends allows reservists to get much more in depth maintenance training on the unmanned aircraft.

"It is a 100 times better to have a Global Hawk here during the UTAs," he said. "We now have more time to do hands-on training to get our maintainers qualified."

Colonel Welch said he hopes to get two jets for training weekends to "multiply our capabilities to support the total force initiative at Beale." (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)