The crash of an MQ-9 Reaper drone near Creech Air Force Base in Nevada on Dec.
11, 2014. The investigation determined the cause of the accident to be pilot
error during a training flight. (photo: U.S. Airforce)
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Air Force Drones Are Crashing Than Ever as Mysterious New Problems Emerge
By Craig Whitlock, The
Washington Post
21 January 16
A record
number of Air Force drones crashed in major accidents last year, documents
show, straining the U.S. military’s fleet of robotic aircraft when it is in
more demand than ever for counterterrorism missions in an expanding array of
war zones.
Driving
the increase was a mysterious surge in mishaps involving the Air Force’s newest
and most advanced “hunter-killer” drone, the Reaper, which has become the
Pentagon’s favored weapon for conducting surveillance and airstrikes against
the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups.
The
Reaper has been bedeviled by a rash of sudden electrical failures that have
caused the 21/2-ton drone to lose power and drop from the
sky, according to accident-investigation documents obtained under the Freedom
of Information Act. Investigators have traced the problem to a faulty
starter-generator, but have been unable to pinpoint why it goes haywire or
devise a permanent fix.
All
told, 20 large Air Force drones were destroyed or sustained at least
$2 million in damage in accidents last year, the worst annual toll ever,
according to a Washington Post investigation. The Pentagon has shrouded the
extent of the problem and kept details of most of the crashes a secret.
The
aircraft losses pose another challenge for the Air Force as it struggles to
provide sufficient drone coverage for counterterrorism operations in Iraq,
Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Mali and Cameroon, among other
countries.
Despite
a surge in requests from field commanders, the Air Force last year had to
curtail its drone combat missions by 8 percent because of an acute shortage of
pilots for the remote-controlled aircraft. Things have gotten so bad that the
Air Force is offering retention bonuses of up to $125,000 to its drone pilots,
who have long complained of overwork.
The
Air Force also has contracted out more drone missions to private companies to
meet what one general called “a virtually insatiable appetite” from military
commanders for airborne surveillance.
While
Air Force leaders have publicly bemoaned a lack of personnel and resources,
they have said little about the high number of drone crashes, a
long-standing vulnerability that worsened substantially last
year.
Ten
Reapers were badly damaged or destroyed in 2015, at least twice as many as in
any previous year, according to Air Force safety data.
The
Reaper’s mishap rate — the number of major crashes per 100,000 hours flown —
more than doubled compared with 2014. The aircraft, when fully equipped, cost
about $14 million each to replace.
The
Air Force’s other primary drone model, the Predator, also suffered heavy
casualties.
An
older and less capable version of the Reaper, the Predator was involved in 10
major accidents last year. That’s the most since 2011, when the U.S. military
was simultaneously surging troops into Afghanistan and withdrawing ground
forces from Iraq.
Although
the Defense Department has a policy to disclose all major aircraft mishaps, it
did not publicly report half of the 20 Reaper and Predator accidents last
year.
In five
other cases, U.S. military officials provided confirmation only after local authorities reported the crashes or enemy
fighters posted photos of the wreckage on social media.
According
to the military, only one drone was downed by hostile forces: a Predator that was hit by Syrian air
defenses near Latakia on March 17.
All
but one of the 20 Air Force drone accidents last year occurred overseas. Six
drones crashed in Afghanistan. Four crashed in the Horn of Africa, near a U.S.
military base in Djibouti. Three crashed in Iraq. There were also crashes in
Kuwait, Turkey, Syria and Libya.
In two
cases, Air Force officials would not identify the country where the mishaps
occurred.
Data
covering drone crashes. (photo: The Washington Post)
In
addition to the Air Force, the Army operates its own drone fleet. It is
preparing to expand the number of combat missions it flies to help compensate
for the Air Force’s cutbacks.
Last
year, the Army reported four major drone crashes, each involving the Gray Eagle
— a model identical to the Predator. Three of the Army’s accidents occurred in
Afghanistan. One happened in Iraq.
Although
the military’s drone programs are largely unclassified, the Obama
administration rarely discusses details of the key role they fill in its
counterterrorism strategy. The CIA runs its own drone operations on a covert
basis, and the secrecy surrounding those missions often seeps into the
Pentagon.
Lt.
Gen. Robert P. Otto, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence and
surveillance programs, acknowledged in an interview that there has been a spike
in Reaper accidents.
Many
cases remain under investigation, but Otto and other Air Force officials blamed
the Reaper’s flawed starter-generator for causing at least six major crashes
since December 2014.
“We’re
looking closely at that to determine what is the core issue there,” Otto said.
Although
the drone pilot shortage has compelled the Air Force to reduce the number of
combat missions, Otto said the aircraft mishaps have not forced additional
cuts. The Air Force has enough replacement drones on hand, he said, and already
had orders in place to buy dozens more Reapers over the next few years.
“Any
impact to operations has been negligible to barely noticeable,” he said.
Field
commanders, however, have long complained of a drone deficit. In March, the
four-star commanders of U.S. forces in the Middle East and Africa both told
Congress that the Pentagon has provided less than one-quarter of the drones,
other aircraft and satellites that they need for reconnaissance and
surveillance missions.
“The
Predator has been our most effective weapon in our campaign against the global
jihadists,” said Michael G. Vickers, the
Pentagon’s former top civilian intelligence official, at a House Armed Services
Committee hearing Jan. 12. But he cautioned that the size of the drone fleet
“will remain a critical limiting factor in the conduct of our campaign.”
Drones
going ‘stupid’
Military
drones have been dogged by persistent safety and reliability problems since
the first Predator was deployed to the
Balkans on a combat mission two decades ago.
Of the
269 Predators purchased by the Air Force since then, about half have been
destroyed or badly damaged in accidents, records show.
Air
Force officials describe the Predator as an experimental aircraft that was
rushed into war zones, particularly after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan
in 2001. They say it has lasted much longer than expected and that, at a cost
of$4 million apiece, is relatively expendable in the event of a crash.
The
Air Force has about 140 Predators left and plans to retire them all by 2018.
They are gradually being replaced by the Reaper.
Introduced
in 2007, the Reaper can fly twice as far as the Predator and carry more bombs
and missiles. Until recently, it also had a much better safety record.
Over
the past three years, however, some production models of the Reaper have been
hobbled by an outbreak of electrical failures.
Investigators
and engineers have traced the problem to the starter-generator. It powers the
drone but is prone to conking out, for reasons that remain unclear.
The
Reaper carries an emergency battery backup system. But the batteries last only
for about one hour. If a malfunctioning drone needs more time than that to
reach an airfield, it is in trouble.
In
such emergencies, the drone pilot usually has no choice but to intentionally
crash the aircraft in a remote area, such as a mountainside or a waterway, to
avoid striking people on the ground. No one has died in a military drone
accident, though many catastrophes have been narrowly averted, documents show.
“Once
the battery’s gone, the airplane goes stupid and you lose it,” said Col.
Brandon Baker, chief of the Air Force’s remotely piloted aircraft capabilities
division. “Quite frankly, we don’t have the root cause ironed out just yet.”
The
Reaper and the Predator are both manufactured by General Atomics Aeronautical
Systems, a San Diego-based defense contractor. In addition to the Air Force,
other customers who have purchased the Reaper include the Department of
Homeland Security, NASA, and the British, French and Italian armed forces. The
CIA also flies Reapers.
General
Atomics officials declined requests for an interview or to provide data on the
Reaper’s history of starter-generator failures.
In an
emailed statement, General Atomics spokeswoman Kimberly Kasitz said the firm
“stands behind the proven reliability” of the Reaper. She added that Reapers
have recorded more than 2.2 million flight hours and have “been very
effective for multiple customers.”
The
Reaper’s starter-generator is built by Skurka Aerospace of Camarillo,
Calif.
Skurka
executives referred requests for comment to their parent corporation, Transdigm
Group of Cleveland. A Transdigm spokeswoman did not respond to phone calls
or emails.
Averting
disaster
Government
agencies other than the Pentagon have also run into problems with their
Reapers.
Shortly
before midnight Jan. 27, 2014, an unarmed Reaper was flying a surveillance
mission near San Diego for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Suddenly, an
alarm sounded, signaling that the starter-generator had stopped working.
The
crew flying the drone from a remote-control ground station in Corpus Christi,
Tex., inputted commands to restart the generator, but their attempt failed. The
pilot made quick calculations and concluded that the Reaper lacked enough
battery power to make it back to its launch point, at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.,
according to an aircraft accident report by Customs and Border Protection.
Worried
that the Reaper might otherwise crash into a heavily populated part of Southern
California, the pilot commanded the drone to head out to sea, where it was
ditched about 23 miles west of Point Loma, Calif.
The
drone sank about 4,200 feet to the ocean floor. Ten days later, most of the
wreckage, including the intact starter-generator, was recovered from the depths
by a Navy salvage team.
According
to the accident investigation report, it was the 18th time in nine months that
a starter-generator had failed on a Reaper. Disaster was averted in most cases,
but in three of the incidents, the drone crashed.
Working
with engineers from General Atomics, investigators identified three parts of
the starter-generator that were susceptible to breakdowns. But they couldn’t
figure out why they were failing.
No
pattern was apparent. Older units had failed, but so had brand-new ones. There
was no correlation with operating locations or conditions. The Customs and
Border Protection investigation blamed an “unknown factor” that was “likely
external.”
The
report noted that, unlike most aircraft, the Reaper lacked a backup, or
redundant, power supply system. Calling it a “design weakness,” the report
recommended that Reapers be equipped with a permanent backup electrical supply.
Two
days after the crash near San Diego, General Atomics issued an alert bulletin
to its customers, advising them to limit “non-essential” Reaper operations to
keep the drones within one hour’s flight of an air base in case of an
emergency. The
bulletin, however, did not apply to combat missions.
Crashes
pile up
General
Atomics engineers made little headway in identifying the mechanical gremlin
that was plaguing the starter-generators. Meanwhile, Reapers kept crashing. On
Dec. 12, 2014, a Reaper armed with missiles and bombs experienced a
starter-generator failure about 90 minutes after it took off from Kandahar Air
Base in Afghanistan.
As the
batteries drained, the crew intentionally flew the drone into a mountain. The
wreckage was not recovered.
“I
thought it was a very prudent place to ditch it, onto a high mountain top,” the
unidentified mission crew commander told Air Force investigators, according to
the accident-investigation report. “Our deal is we try to do it into high
mountain tops.”
Less
than two months later, on Feb. 4, 2015, an Air Force Reaper had to cut
short a surveillance mission over Somalia when its starter-generator died.
The
flight crew tried to rush the drone back to its base in Djibouti. But with
about 30 miles to go, the battery ran out and the Reaper was ditched in
the sea, according to the Air Force’s accident investigation report.
In an
appendix to the report, General Atomics noted that it had completed the
development of a “more robust” starter-generator in response to the string of
mishaps. The appendix, which was heavily redacted, did not give further
details.
In
March, the Air Force’s program manager for its Reaper fleet filed a report with
the Pentagon noting that there had been “a dramatic increase” in
starter-generator failures since 2013.
Col.
William S. Leister informed Pentagon officials that investigators from the Air
Force, General Atomics and Skurka had investigated the problem for more
than a year. The team, he said, had identified “numerous manufacturing
quality issues” yet had been unable to determine the exact cause of the
failures.
“But,
I am pleased to report that we may have light at the end of this dark tunnel,”
he added, promising unspecified “corrective actions in the very near term.” He
declined to comment further for this article.
Other
Air Force officials said the service began installing a secondary generator on
its Reapers in July that can provide up to 10 extra hours of electricity in
case the first one fails.
The
Air Force determined that 60 Reapers in its fleet were carrying the buggy
starter-generators. So far, the new backup part has been installed on 47 of
those aircraft, according to Baker, the colonel in charge of the drone
capabilities division.
Since
then, Baker said, there have been 17 “saves” — or incidents in which the
primary generator failed mid-flight. In each case, he added, the backup
generator kicked in and the drone was able to land safely.
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