Syria and Iraq. Eleven more were lost to operational accidents on combat missions. In 2012, the Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk were described as "the most accident-prone aircraft in the Air Force fleet." On 3 March 2011, the U.S. Air Force took delivery of its last MQ-1 Predator in a ceremony at General Atomics' flight operations facility. Since its first flight in July 1994, the MQ-1 series accumulated over 1,000,000 flight hours and maintained a fleet fully mission capable rate over 90 percent. On 22 October 2013, the U.S. Air Force's fleets of MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft reached 2,000,000 flight hours. The RPA program began in the mid-1990s, taking 16 years for them to reach 1 million flight hours. The 2 million hour mark was reached just two and a half years after that. On 9 March 2018, the U.S. Air Force officially retired the MQ-1 Predator from operational service. The aircraft was first operationally deployed in 1995 and in 2011 the last of 268 Predators were delivered to the service, of which just over 100 were still in service by the start of 2018. While the Predator was phased out by the Air Force in favor of the heavier and more capable MQ-9 Reaper, the Predator continues to serve in the MQ-1C Gray Eagle derivative for the U.S. Army as well as with several foreign nations. Squadrons and operational units During the initial ACTD phase, the United States Army led the evaluation program, but in April 1996, the Secretary of Defense selected the U.S. Air Force as the operating service for the RQ-1A Predator system. The 3d Special Operations Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base, 11th, 15th, 17th, and 18th Reconnaissance Squadrons, Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, and the Air National Guard's 163d Reconnaissance Wing at March Air Reserve Base, California, currently operate the MQ-1. In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense recommended retiring Ellington Field's 147th Fighter Wing's F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets (a total of 15 aircraft), which was approved by the Base Realignment and Closure committee. They will be replaced with 12 MQ-1 Predator UAVs, and the new unit should be fully equipped and outfitted by 2009. The wing's combat support arm will remain intact. The 272d Engineering Installation Squadron, an Air National Guard unit currently located off-base, will move into Ellington Field in its place. The 3d Special Operations Squadron is