Afstan: Herons ready to take wing

Officially the CU170:

New drones give military better eyes in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Canada’s newest weapon in the battle against deadly roadside bombs is ready to fly into action.

The CU170 Heron unmanned aerial vehicle - or UAV - will take to the skies this week in an effort to reduce the number of insurgent attacks on troops on the ground.

The drone has the capacity to fly for more than 24 hours at a time and detect insurgent activities across a 200-kilometre range.

"The information gathered by the Heron is in high demand," said Col. Christopher Coates, air wing commander in Kandahar.

Until now, Canada has been relying on the shorter-range Sperwer UAV to keep an eye on what the Taliban have been doing in the region, but the smaller drones are limited in how long and how far they can fly.

Coates called the Sperwer a "good aircraft," but said it offered no comparison to the more high-tech capacities of the Heron.

The Heron, he said, "is top of the line."

The drone arrived last month at Kandahar Airfield, where Canada has about 2,700 soldiers based [that includes several hundred Air Force personnel, and some 60 Navy personnel].

In that time, the air wing has been busy getting the ground station - from where the pilotless craft is controlled - wired and ready.

"We’re ready to go now," Coates said.

The Canadian Forces had put forward a proposal to purchase UAVs last spring, but the plan was derailed over political concerns the contract would have been awarded without competition to a U.S. firm [not really--the US firm pulled out of the competition].

The government later agreed to lease the Heron UAVs from MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, a firm based in Richmond, B.C.

Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have been identified by the military as the "signature" strategy used by insurgents to kill and maim coalition soldiers in Kandahar.

To date, 107 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2002. More than half have been killed by roadside bombs.

From a Canadian Army news release:

One of the Canadian military's newest additions, the Heron UAV, taxis at CFB/ASU Wainwright during Exercise Maple Guardian.

...
One of the key features of the UAV is the ROVER (Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver), which receives camera images from nearby aircraft and UAVs. The ROVER allows ground forces to see what the UAV is seeing in real time by receiving images acquired by the aircraft's sensors on a laptop on the ground...

UAV Detachment aircrew
Along with three intelligence personnel, an air vehicle operator (AVO) and a payload operator (PO) make up the five-person crew of the Heron.

"The primary function of a PO is to acquire intelligence information from different altitudes by using the electro-optical and infrared camera systems on the UAV," said Master Corporal John Bowden, an airborne electronic sensor operator training as a PO. MCpl Bowden will be deploying operationally for the first time...

Babbler's Update: FYI, the contractors apparently pranged one (better one of them than one of our guys!), so the unit's not quite where it wants to be yet. At least, that's what we were told when we were out there.