Air Drive investigating unnamed drone security ‘incident’ at Creech

An unnamed navy drone was concerned in a security “incident” Wednesday morning at Creech Air Drive Base, Nevada, the service confirmed Thursday.

The remotely piloted plane is assigned to Creech’s 432nd Wing, stated wing spokesperson Capt. Stephen Collier. Nobody was harm within the incident, which occurred shortly earlier than 8 a.m. native time.

It’s unclear to what extent the drone was broken. A submit on the favored “Air Drive amn/nco/snco” Fb web page instructed the plane had “crashed and skidded off the flightline.”

Collier declined to reply questions in regards to the nature of the incident or what kind of plane was concerned, citing an ongoing investigation.

Creech is the Air Drive’s principal drone operations hub, from which the 432nd Wing largely flies the MQ-9 Reaper — a mainstay of America’s counterterror wars over the previous 20 years.

A number of Reapers undergo mishaps every year, together with about 4 a yr which might be destroyed. The Air Drive names the MQ-9 in some, however not all, of these incidents.

The set up can also be residence to at the very least one different reconnaissance drone, the secretive RQ-170 Sentinel.

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Little is thought in regards to the boomerang-shaped stealth plane, for which one mission entails streaming video from above to particular operations models on the bottom. The Conflict Zone reported in 2018 that an estimated 20 or 30 Sentinels are regarded as operated by the thirtieth and forty fourth Reconnaissance Squadrons at Creech. The aircraft has additionally been noticed on the former Vandenberg AFB in California.

The Air Drive hardly ever acknowledges RQ-170 operations and doesn’t publicize its accidents in annual security studies.

“Till the conclusion of the security investigation board, we’re unable to supply additional particulars,” Collier stated.