Air Force using formerly civilian planes to find enemy in war zones

Air Force Times:

The Air Force traded wine chillers for advanced spy equipment aboard custom fit turboprops to help troops hunt down improvised explosive devices.

Two months after the service deployed the first MC-12Ws to Iraq, the same planes that once belonged to private citizens such as a doctor who designed his to ferry wine from his home in Texas to Mexico City are now saving American troops’ lives.

The first six MC-12Ws under Project Liberty surpassed 300 combat missions in Iraq on Monday. That day, Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited the MC-12W production lines in Greenville, Texas, alongside Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Task Force Director Lt. Gen. Craig Koziol to receive updates on its progress.

Gates and Koziol launched Project Liberty, a $461 million program to deploy 37 MC-12Ws and about 1,000 airmen by 2010, in July 2008 to get more ISR aircraft over troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Each of these planes represents critical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities badly needed in the field by our troops and their partners,” Gates told the airmen and L-3 Communications employees building the planes.

Koziol told Gates at the plant the Air Force would deliver the first MC-12W to Afghanistan in December. By September 2010, the Air Force will deploy 23 more to Afghanistan, said retired Col. Kim A. High, commander of the Big Safari Systems Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Four airmen fly the MC-12W — two pilots, one sensor operator and one signals intelligence specialist — with 14 aircrews deployed to Iraq. The sensor operator controls the full-motion video camera, and the SIGINT specialist operates “Pennant Race,” an advanced version of the SIGINT package found on MQ-9 Reapers.

“Our enemies often hide behind the population and use tactics like IEDs to avoid a direct fight upsetting our traditional advantages as they try to exploit our vulnerabilities,” Gates told the crowd of employees and airmen at the Texas plant.

“Platforms like the MC-12, though, give America distinct counter to their efforts. An unmatched advantage that gives our troops an eye in the sky and often helps us disrupt and hunt down our enemies often before they strike saving the lives of American troops while sparing innocent civilians.”

...

There is more. This is a way to add more eyes in watching enemy operations. They can supplement the UAVs that are doing critical work in finding and destroying the enemy before they can plan an IED or spring and ambush. There is more on the program here.