{"id":32568,"date":"2023-01-05T23:02:03","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T23:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/01\/05\/air-guards-rc-26-reconnaissance-planes-head-into-retirement\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:16:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:16:25","slug":"air-guards-rc-26-reconnaissance-planes-head-into-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2023\/01\/05\/air-guards-rc-26-reconnaissance-planes-head-into-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Guard\u2019s RC-26 reconnaissance planes head into retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air National Guard is saying goodbye to its fleet of 11 niche reconnaissance planes after years of sparring with Congress over their future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">RC-26 Condors are small propeller planes that can find and map targets from drug-runners to forest fires using infrared and electro-optical imaging. The planes entered the Air Force in 1989 and are spread across units in Alabama, Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Condors offer an aerial surveillance option for local and federal law enforcement agencies, allowing them to cut down on high-speed chases and more easily gather evidence on drug trafficking organizations, the Air Force said in a release Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2019\/02\/14\/air-guards-rc-26-decision-undermines-trumps-border-security-priorities\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/RC-26.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Air Guard\u2019s RC-26 decision undermines Trump\u2019s border security priorities<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Despite the important abilities of the RC-26 reconnaissance plane, Air Guard officials announced they\u2019ll be removing it from use, and will do so quickly.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOfficers, civilians, suspects, families and regular citizens \u2026 have no idea that the reason that they are alive is because those guys were experts at their jobs, helped chase down and arrest drug dealers, in ways that could not have been done in any other platform,\u201d said Lt. Col. Benjamin West, RC-26 program manager at the Wisconsin Air National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The aircraft can also relay video of natural disasters to civilian and military agencies on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe can downlink that video to people on the ground so they can see from the air what\u2019s been damaged, who needs rescuing, and they can coordinate from there,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/02\/25\/congressman-an-officer-back-from-an-air-guard-mission-on-the-border-now-backs-trumps-emergency-declaration\/\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Kinzinger<\/a>, the former Illinois Republican congressman who flies the RC-26 as a lieutenant colonel in the Wisconsin Guard, said in an Air Force release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those capabilities recently made RC-26s a target of federal scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Condors were seen flying over the District of Columbia, Minneapolis and Phoenix amid civil unrest across the country in 2020, spurring allegations that the Guard was inappropriately using the aircraft to spy on Americans protesting police brutality. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2020-10-18\/spy-plane-george-floyd-protests-el-dorado-hills-california-national-guard\">Los Angeles Times investigation<\/a> that year noted that one RC-26 had patrolled peaceful protests near the California National Guard boss\u2019s home outside Sacramento.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2022\/12\/07\/congress-approves-a-10-retirements-more-f-35s-in-defense-bill\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/A-10-training.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Congress would approve A-10 retirements, more F-35s in defense bill<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">For years, Congress has thwarted the Air Force&#039;s attempts to retire the iconic A-10 Warthog, but that is about to change.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An Air Force inspector general inquiry concluded in August 2020 that the planes were keeping an eye on crowd and fire safety, not tracking individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force argues that maintaining the three-decade-old planes costs $30 million each year, even as other aircraft have surpassed the Condor\u2019s capabilities. The 2020 and 2021 National Defense Authorization acts blocked the service from retiring the fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kinzinger, a six-term lawmaker who declined to seek reelection and left Congress on Tuesday, was a staunch advocate for the RC-26 in annual defense policy and spending bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The RC-26 is \u201cthe only aircraft in the Air Force inventory that can do Pillar I of the president\u2019s National Security Strategy, which includes counter-drug and border security for both state and federal missions,\u201d Kinzinger said in a 2019 op-ed in Air Force Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDespite the important abilities of this reconnaissance plane, Air Guard officials announced they\u2019ll be removing it from use, and will do so quickly,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI implore the Air Guard to recognize the merits of this aircraft and its value to our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawmakers granted the Air Force\u2019s wish in the 2023 NDAA, which became law without restrictions on the fate of the Condor fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kinzinger\u2019s Wisconsin Guard unit flew its last RC-26 mission on Dec. 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Air Force argued that maintaining the three-decade-old planes cost $30 million each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":72333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3484],"class_list":["post-32568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"SVSG66JHSBCQ5HY7LXZ6QFQVHA","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2023\/01\/05\/air-guards-rc-26-reconnaissance-planes-head-into-retirement\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Air Guard\u2019s RC-26 reconnaissance planes head into retirement - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Air Force argued that maintaining the three-decade-old planes cost $30 million each year.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Air Guard\u2019s RC-26 reconnaissance planes head into retirement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Air Force argued that maintaining the three-decade-old planes cost $30 million each year.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2023\/01\/05\/air-guards-rc-26-reconnaissance-planes-head-into-retirement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-05T23:02:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T21:16:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rachel S. 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