Big Safari is a United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 program which provides management, direction, and control of the acquisition, modification, and logistics support for special purpose weapons systems. The program itself receives some direction from NASIC. It is headquartered in Greenville, Texas

Greenville, Texas

Greenville is the county seat, and the largest city, of Hunt County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,557....

 and has facilities at Hanscom AFB and Wright-Patterson AFB. The program operates, among other aircraft, the RC-135 and EC-130 aircraft as well as unmanned aerial vehicles. The Air Force has referred to Big Safari as a "rapid procurement force," which tests the fielding of new weapons systems, sensors, and platforms. By some accounts , the program has been operating since the late-1950s, when the BQM-34 Firefly

Ryan Firebee

The Ryan Firebee was a series of target drones or unmanned aerial vehicles developed by the Ryan Aeronautical Company beginning in 1951. It was one of the first jet-propelled drones, and one of the most widely-used target drones ever built....

 drone was procured and evaluated. This effort led to the first operational unmanned reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....

 vehicle, the redesignated Ryan Aeronautical AQM-34 Lightning Bug.

The program is still operational as of 2011.