USAF's Draco aircraft on the move
Tuesday 20 October 2020 saw the arrival of three Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) Pilatus U-28A Draco Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft at Rota Air Base (Spain).
The aircraft were seen transiting Rota for a regular change for their deployment in support of CENTCOM area of operations. Coming from Lajes airfield on the Azores, the transatlantic flight of U-28As was accompanied by a HC-130J Combat King II. From Rota they headed east towards Catania Fontanarossa Airport (Italy).
The following aircraft were involved:
U-28As 04-0688, 05-0446 and 05-0597 with support of HC-130J 16-5873/LI.
After more than 13 years in service, the U-28A intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft officially received approval in May 2019 for the naming convention of “Draco”. The mission of the Draco is to provide manned fixed-wing tactical airborne ISR support to humanitarian operations, search and rescue, conventional and special operations missions. Draco is the Latin term for dragon.
According to the AFSOC website, Special Operations Command operated a total of 28 U-28As in May 2019. The Scramble Magazine database shows a total of 35 active aircraft operated by 5th SOS at Duke Field (Eglin AF Aux. Nr.3) (FL), the 14th WPS, the 34th SOS and the 319th SOS, all at Hurlburt Field (FL) and the 318th SOS at Cannon AFB (NM).
Photos: Daniel Ferro and graphic INTELSky