Act Daily News
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The US Air Force is shifting up its timeline for scrapping a small fleet of surveillance planes used to assist take fentanyl tablets off the streets, telling National Guard pilots they have to fly their plane to the boneyard by the tip of the month to allow them to be stripped for components, in accordance with paperwork obtained by Act Daily News.
The new plan to get rid of the twin-engine RC-26 plane months sooner than anticipated marks an escalation within the service’s quest to part out the small but closely used fleet of planes regardless of its contributions to counter drug and border missions.
It additionally comes at a time when the Biden administration is going through growing scrutiny over its border insurance policies and is grappling with a dramatic rise in fentanyl deaths across the nation.
Once it grew to become clear in March that Congress was unlikely to undertake a provision that will have prolonged funding for the plane, the Air Force advised pilots who function the RC-26 that they may proceed to fly missions till April 2023, in accordance with inside memos obtained by Act Daily News.
But in November, pilots obtained new orders, instructing them to take their planes to the boneyard earlier than the tip of the yr in order that they may very well be scrapped for components, slightly than offered to a different non-Defense Department entity as initially deliberate, the memos present.
Multiple sources characterised the shift as a “drastic change” by the Air Force that got here with out warning. As a outcome, the power will lose roughly 80 pilots at a time when it’s already going through a service-wide scarcity, sources say.
“The impact this plane and these operators have had in reducing, disrupting and damaging operations of illegal narcotics has been amazing and I am proud to have served alongside you,” one RC-26 pilot wrote to a number of others in an e-mail obtained by Act Daily News.
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who flies the RC-26 as a pilot within the Air National Guard and has pushed to save lots of the airplane from extinction, advised Act Daily News that the shift seems to be a transfer by the Air Force to demilitarize the airplane as rapidly as attainable in an effort to stop any last-ditch effort to put it aside.
“That is the only reason I can see that they have decided to speed it up as quickly as they have,” Kinzinger, who’s retiring from Congress subsequent month, advised Act Daily News in a latest interview. He stated he believes the Air Force has little curiosity in flying counter-drug missions regardless of the RC-26’s outsize function in serving to legislation enforcement fight the stream of fentanyl into the US.
Kinzinger additionally stated that he met with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall this yr to make the case for maintaining the RC-26 operational however was advised in very stark phrases that will not be attainable.
“He basically made clear that DoD business is not, in essence, domestic drug issues even though DoD is one of the primary people responsible,” Kinzinger stated in regards to the assembly.
“We are the only capable border plane. We were pulled from the border under Biden, and they are now killing us,” he added.
Law enforcement officers from across the nation and different National Guard pilots who fly the RC-26 have additionally appealed on to Air Force leaders in Washington to maintain the airplane or present a succesful alternative, in accordance with a number of sources aware of these discussions.
But regardless of self-imposed limits to the sorts of operations that may be flown by RC-26 National Guard pilots, Air Force leaders have now determined they now not need to fund piloted reconnaissance property for border and counter-drug missions, asserting that unmanned drones may be supplied as much as fill that want, Kinzinger stated.
“Given there is no Air Force specific RC-26B validated requirements nor dedicated funding to support sustainment of the weapons system,” Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek advised Act Daily News, “the Air Force is moving forward with the retirement of the aircraft.”
Supporters of the plane, together with Kinzinger, say that the Air Force doesn’t presently have a plan to exchange the capabilities offered by the RC-26 if this system is shuttered.
A legislation enforcement official who beforehand spoke to Act Daily News below the situation of anonymity stated eliminating the RC-26 would take away the largest benefit officers have over drug trafficking organizations which are presently “flooding the market” with massive portions of fentanyl and killing swaths of Americans within the course of.
“I know the Air Force is trying to say there are other options … but they don’t have the same capabilities,” stated the legislation enforcement official, who has routinely requested help from Air National Guard pilots working the RC-26.