Photo By Lori Stewart | The colors of the new UAS Training Battalion are passed from Brig. Gen. E.J. Sinclair...... read more read more
by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
UAS TRAINING TRANSFERS TO AVIATION BRANCH
On Apr. 19, 2006, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, commanding general (CG) of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center (USAIC), and Brig. Gen. E.J. Sinclair, CG of the U.S. Army Aviation Center (USAAVNC), co-hosted a ceremony at the Rugge-Hamilton Flight Line on Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The ceremony recognized the official transfer of authority for all Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) training from the MI Branch to Aviation and activated the UAS Training Battalion (now the 2-13th Aviation Regiment). This ended USAIC’s twenty-one years of proponency for the Army’s UAS program.
While the development, testing and training of UAS (previously known as unmanned aerial vehicles [UAV]) had been taking place at Fort Huachuca since the late 1950s, USAIC had been granted proponency for the full program in 1985. The TRADOC Systems Manager (TSM) UAV was chartered at USAIC the same year. Over subsequent years, the Intelligence Center had developed and executed UAV operators training for the Pioneer, Hunter, and Shadow platforms.
By the early 2000s, however, the vision for the future of the UAV program was changing, and the Army decided to consolidate responsibility for manned and unmanned aircraft. Maj. Gen. John Curran, CG of the Aviation Center at that time, stated, "The primary reason cited for this [transfer] is the evolution of roles unmanned aerial platforms perform on the battlefield…. This proponency change will leverage Aviation Center knowledge of manned aerial platforms into unmanned platforms and will provide the most effective and efficient method for managing the development of this capability for the Objective Force."
In June 2002, the Aviation and Intelligence Centers wrote a coordinated draft charter for the transfer. With the Army vice chief of staff’s approval, the transfer became effective Jun. 30, 2003. Over the next two years, USAIC personnel worked with the Aviation Center’s staff to transfer responsibility for Military Occupational Specialties 96U/350U (now 15W/150U) tactical UAS operator and operations technician training and training development. Responsibility for the Shadow, Hunter, Raven, I-Gnat, and Extended Range/Multi-Purpose UAS programs also transferred from TSM Air Sensors at Fort Huachuca to TSM UAV at Fort Rucker (Fort Novosel since 2023).
At the April 2006 ceremony, General Sinclair made a point of honoring MI’s contributions to the program: “The reputation you have forged on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan is legendary and you have established unmanned systems as a combat multiplier and a critical intelligence asset for commanders at every level.”
General Fast commented, "The coordination that has gone into this yearlong transformation by members of both the Military Intelligence and Aviation Branches has been phenomenal. While the training aspects of the UAS are transferred to the Aviation Corps, the Military Intelligence community will continue to work, train and serve alongside our Aviation brethren day in and day out."
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| Date Taken: | 04.11.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.11.2025 15:41 |
| Story ID: | 495154 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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