U.S. Army to base new surveillance jets and drone battalion at Fort Hood

The U.S. Army will base its future fleet of ME-11B HADES aircraft at Fort Hood, Texas, and establish a first-of-its-kind operational drone battalion at the same installation. The service retired the last of its turboprop ISR planes in 2025.

It is converting Bombardier Global 6500 business jets into the ME-11B aircraft, each equipped with two hardpoints under each wing for external stores. The Army expects delivery of the first prototype before December 31, 2026, and is acquiring two additional prototypes while planning to buy at least six production examples.

The 116th Military Intelligence Brigade is relocating from Fort Gordon, Georgia, to Fort Hood.

Then-Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George authorized the move on March 3, 2026. The consolidation will bring 1,228 additional personnel to Fort Hood from Fort Gordon, Fort Stewart, and Fort Bliss by the end of Fiscal Year 2028. A contracting notice for hangar work at Robert Gray Army Airfield to accommodate the ME-11Bs was issued in June 2026.

The 224th Military Intelligence Battalion will form the core of the new UAS Battalion and is scheduled to complete its move from Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, to Fort Hood by 2027. The UAS Battalion will include a Headquarters and Headquarters Company, two MQ-1C Gray Eagle companies, and one processing, exploitation, and dissemination company.

Andrew Evans, Director of Strategy and Transformation with the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army, said the combined range of HADES and its launched drones will allow the Army to touch any location worldwide from a sensing perspective.

Evans added that ISR missions would be impossible due to threats only 0.1 percent of the time over a 70- or 80-year period. Army Maj. Gen. Timothy Brown said the key to the future of Aerial ISR is the consolidation at Fort Hood of the mighty 116th.