As a UAV guy perhaps I can shed some light on how the communities works. It is true that the guys flying the tactical portion of the mission are in CONUS, the UAVs are not launched via a ground control station in the USA. They actually have dudes deployed to wherever the MQ-1/9 is based so that th,ey can preflight, start, taxi, take-off and fly to the hand off point. The reason being 2 fold- one is that you have a "rated aviator" (In the AF the RPA/UAV guys come from a pipeline that results in a BUQ-4 qual and a winging designation) conducting a preflight of an airplane that is carrying live ordnance, and two- that the satellite link has an amount of delay (no more on that in this forum) that is acceptable for all regimes of flight except for take off and landing (especially landing an airplane that you have to have to do the whole flaring finesse maneuver to land).
On top of that depending on who is doing the tasking requires certain requirements (the difference between ISR and Aerial Recce doesn't sound like much, but it's significant as ISR requires a lot of Intel folks to do some in depth analysis, and nothing really moves quickly with them). And all of the guys flying still follow all of those 3710 type rules involving crew day and crew rest. We also brief in depth just like every other aviation squadron. Imagine briefing a 25 hour + sortie among 3 aircrews- with your launch and recovery aircrew 1/2 way around the world. (We in the Marine Corps don't do it that way, but the AF does)
On top of current operational requirements there isn't an exercise out there that doesn't want UAV support. VMU-2 last year had some type of det gone for 45 out of 52 weeks. Many times the entire squadron deploys for ITX and WTI, as well as meeting combat deployment requirements with smaller DETs, and there are always the constant training DETs. Plus a lot of those dudes don't have the opportunity for B billets. Some of that is because the community is new and they haven't been written, and other times it's because there is a need for them in the fleet.
Then there is the problem of the "real pilot" vs 2nd string mentality. Like it or not UAV guys are doing some good work, but we have a hard time recognizing it. As a result you get the polar opposite stuff happening. Sure, the AF guys aren't really at risk, but that doesn't mean that what they do isn't pretty bad ass and effective. To coin a phrase they are putting warheads on foreheads with a lot more regularity than a lot of other manned platforms. When a Marine has to walk outside the wire to launch and recover an RQ-7B and put themselves in known areas where guys have been shot and killed by sniper fire- that's pretty dangerous. As dangerous as landing a Hornet on the boat at night? I don't know. I've landed the Hornet on the boat at night and that was scary- but I haven't had to strap on the flak and kevlar and don my rifle knowing that today might be the day that I have to do that shit that I learned how to do at TBS.
Sorry for the long winded post. I could go on and on about what I've learned coming from the manned TACAIR world to the unmanned TACAIR world.
