On the "Aerospace/Aviation Opportunities" slide, (page 55), NGAT proposes creating a 500 sq-mile "Advanced Aviation Command and Control (A2C2) Test Area" (larger map below). One end is anchored by Mackall Army Airfield, a satellite installation of Fort Bragg. The other end is Stanley County Airport, which is manned by the Air National Guard. The majority of this civilian airspace is already designated a "special use airspace", controlled by Bragg.
Update: Announced without much fanfare in 2014 - coming to Mackall Army Airfield sometime in 2016: a fleet of 9 MQ-1C Gray Eagle/Predator drones.
Previously published at Scrutiny Hooligans as "This Is How That Happened"
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| RQ-4/MQ-4 Global Hawk. U.S. Air Force photo by Bobbi Zapka. Primary navigation components of the Global Hawk are manufactured just outside Asheville, NC. |
Late in 2011, the 2012 FAA Act had just been passed in Congress, and it mandated the creation of a UAS integration program. It required that six UAS testing sites be established across the US. The FAA was directed to address both potential "civil" (commercial) drone operations, and "public" (military) drone operations in these tests (but only the "civil" uses were ever mentioned in news reports of the time). According to emails acquired by the organization ‘Muckrock’, the effort to establish a UAS testing site in North Carolina started soon after the passage of the 2012 FAA Act.
The Hyde County “Gull Rock Test Site” as it was called, was first proposed by the NC Military Foundation, the state’s defense industry trade group, and the NC National Guard. The NCNG, which operates their own military drones, specifically endorsed the Gull Rock site because it was “adjacent to our current military operations area”, the DoDs giant Navy Dare Bombing Range. This suggests that its reason for being chosen can be explained by Mr. Steve Pennington of the DoD in this 2011 interview, where he describes the nascent FAA program:
“The sites will not be co-located with existing DoD sites that have
been cleared to fly UAS in the United States, such as Grand Forks Air
Force Base, ND, Pennington said. However, he said the new airspace sites
will likely butt up against those DoD-owned sites.”
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| The Gull Rock Test Site/Hyde County Airport is the small blue/yellow area; the large red area abutting it is the Navy Dare Bombing Range |
2012
North Carolina’s “Next Generation Air Transportation (NGAT)” program is officially launched at NCSU, with support from the NCDOT, and begins to assume control of the UAV program previously initiated by the military and the defense industry trade group. All FAA “Certificates of Authorization” for drone use in North Carolina are now held by NCSU, including those needed to operate military drones like the RQ-7 Shadow in non-military airspace. What had been developing under military/defense contractor auspices, was quietly taken over by a civilian/academic agency.
The handover wasn’t without at least a little friction. This from a 2013 email from the commanding General of the NC National Guard:
“Over one year ago I jumped on board in trying to get our UAV
units flying, at this “proposed” training facility and was asked to step
back in an attempt to not “militarize” this initiative – placating the
concerns that a “militarized” approach would… result in erosion of
public support.”
An NGAT workshop was held at NC State University. Along with the aforementioned Steve Pennington from the Department of Defense, there was at least one more participant from the military, Jon Gorman – a representative from the NC Air National Guard. As of Nov. 2014, that Guard officer has been listed as “Program Manager” at the NCSU/NGAT website, and his LinkedIn page only lists that current job at NCSU, no ‘previous’ employer. But nothing ever disappears from the internet. Before November, that LinkedIn page showed that his occupation was:”Battalion TACOPS Officer, 1 – 130th ARB, United States Army National Guard”. (The “TACOPS”, or “Tactical Operations Officer” is responsible for coordinating air assets like drones in military maneuvers.) Is there some reason his previous military career disappeared from view when he moved over to the NGAT program? Perhaps again, to prevent “the erosion of public support”?
And there was at least one participant at the NGAT workshop whose background was in the private sector NSA/intelligence community: “Chris Estes – North Carolina Chief Information Officer”. Under a 2013 moratorium on drone use in North Carolina, only the State Chief Information Officer can approve waivers of the sort required by the NGAT testing program, essentially putting him in charge. This was signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory on the very day that the NGAT workshop began at NC State, two miles away from the Governors Mansion.
Before joining the McCrory administration, Estes was a “Principal in the Strategy, Technology, and Innovation practice” of Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH). BAH (the former employer of whistlebower Edward Snowden), is widely known as the “private sector NSA”. Along with much of the intelligence-gathering and analysis work for the NSA, they also contract to perform much of the hands-on hi-tech work of the nation’s military.
Estes’ principle deputy on the drone issue, Krissy Culler, is also a BAH alumnus, and most recently a “division director for Navy Cyber Forces”, described as the “Navy’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat systems and Intelligence (C5I) workforce.” (It’s recently been renamed – it’s now called, and I swear I’m not making this up, “Navy Information Dominance Forces”. Take that, information.)
So these are just a few of the people currently in charge of NC’s drone testing program: (former?) high-ranking members of NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, the Navy’s hi-tech surveillance infrastructure, and our local drone-flying military.
But wait, there’s more! DoD, Navy C5ISR, Booz Allen Hamilton, National Guard… What North Carolina-based entity could possibly be added to this mix, to really bring it to a full boil? If you answered: “Blackwater”, congratulations.
Two of NGAT’s three testing sites are described in some detail by the State CIO, in a 2014 report to the NCGA. One is the previously-mentioned Gull Rock Test Site. The second is near Butner NC, and is associated with an NC Dept. of Agriculture research station there. The third is described only as “a private airfield in Moyock”. That “private airfield” is, in fact, the 7000-acre private military compound formerly known as Blackwater, now known as ‘Academi’. This comparison between the aerial view of the site, and a Google map view of Moyock, removes any doubt.
If there’s reason to involve a controversial private military contractor like Blackwater in an ostensibly civilian university program (and be secretive about doing so), we haven’t seen it. News reports about the NGAT program focus solely on the potential benefits of drones to agriculture, search and rescue, etc., which to be sure, are many and real. But so far, there has never been a public acknowledgment that an initial, central purpose of North Carolina’s drone testing program appears to have been (and may still be) to facilitate the integration of military drones into domestic airspace. If and when this finally happens, the decision will be made by the Pentagon, the FAA, by Congress, and by the President. But it will only happen after the participation of local drone testing programs like NGAT.
North Carolina's NGAT program was not chosen by the FAA to be one of the six, temporary officially-designated UAS test sites at the end of 2013 (more on the military components of those sites here). But they continue to operate the testing activities, in hopes of being chosen for a permanent "UAS Center for Excellence" in 2016.
None of this is to suggest that any of the people cited here are bad people, or are doing anything illegal. If there’s reason to cloak a military operation in the rhetoric of jobs and investment, and agricultural uses and firefighting and finding lost kids in the woods, let’s hear it. But in a free society, the military should not be allowed to make this kind of leap, of putting military unmanned vehicles in the skies over our heads, without the public and our local elected representatives being fully informed and engaged. It’s their job to protect us – it’s our job to protect our free society.
Otherwise, one day soon, something that will be bad for the public’s trust in their military will happen: A whole lot of people in North Carolina will look up and say, “Is that a Predator flying over my house? How did that happen?”
This is how that happened.
Update: April 30, 2015. During discussion on a bill in the NC General Assembly amending the NC SCIO's authority to issue waivers for govt. use of drones, the bill sponsor was asked if the SCIO would make public information on who exactly was receiving these waivers. The sponsor, Rep. John Torbett said, "I can't imagine a reason that they would not... unless, of course, he's dealing with such things that might deal with national security".
Next, he was asked about the testing going on at the facility known as Blackwater, or 'Moyock'. He said, "There has been no waiver for Moyock." Audio here. It's a curious statement, given the ample documentation to the contrary.
Furthermore, in this presentation by Kyle Snyder earlier that same month (which Rep. Torbett was listed as having attended), all of NGAT's current 'fleet' of drones are shown, along with their assigned testing sites. Not only does it confirm that testing is occurring at the Moyock site (referred to here by it's 'alternate' name, Caratoke) all of the drones cited as being tested there are of military-surveillance origins. The largest, the T-20, is an 18-ft. wingspan, catapult-launch vehicle used primarily by the Navy.
Update: May 8th, 2015. A team of university-based drone testing programs, including NC State's NGAT program, has been selected by the FAA as the official "Center of Excellence". Read the press release here. This designation includes funding and a five year mandate to continue UAV research. The particulars of what type of testing will be conducted where has not been announced.
Update 2: The newly-designated FAA "National Center of Excellence (COE) for Unmanned Aircraft Systems" a coalition of sixteen university-based UAV programs, has announced their new Executive Director:
Air Force Major General James Poss (retired), Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.
http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/Biographies/Display/tabid/225/Article/108037/major-general-james-o-poss.aspx
http://www.assureuas.org/leadership.php
