Scaneagle supports SEALs in Combat, planning raids
July 19, 2010, 10:00 AM EDT
July 19 (Bloomberg) -- Video and photos from Boeing Co. drones are helping U.S. commandos stage raids on Taliban and al- Qaeda militants in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The unmanned planes have “supported missions to kill or capture over 40 high-value individuals,” have spotted weapons caches and thwarted efforts to ambush troop convoys or plant roadside bombs, said U.S. Central Command spokesman Captain Jack Hanzlik.
The Boeing ScanEagle weighs 40-pounds and has a wingspan of 10 feet (3 meters). The planes, under the direction of seven-man Navy Special Warfare teams, have flown over 5,600 hours of reconnaissance since November 2008.
The ScanEagle can fly as high as 18,000 feet, where it loiters for up to 10 hours within a range of 72 miles (120 kilometers), said Lieutenant Commander Daniel Imbat, a naval aviator based in Coronado Beach, California, who trains drone operators and sets up teams in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It’s been a heavy-duty player for us in support of all joint special-operations guys,” including Navy SEAL commandos, Rangers, Green Berets and Air Force units, Imbat said.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the services to make greater use of drones, and the military plans to more than triple its inventory by 2020. Much of the public notice has been given to the increased use of Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Global Hawk, which can fly as high as 60,000 feet, or the missile- firing Reapers produced by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., which fly as high as 50,000 feet.
Officials for Chicago-based Boeing Co. have said the market worldwide for drones could be worth as much as $55 billion through 2018.
Monitoring Pirates
The ScanEagle gained international attention when the Navy revealed in April 2009 that it was being used to monitor the lifeboat off Somalia where pirates held hostage the captain of an American-flagged container shop.
The plane is built by Bingen, Washington-based Insitu Inc., a Boeing subsidiary.
Imbat said the ScanEagles are used for “the long, mundane, things that take weeks or months” to develop, “where we can go after a bad guy” or, as in Iraq, help the Iraqi police “build a case for an arrest.”
The drone has enabled U.S. special forces to “follow a person and see their whole day,” Harry Canter, a Navy instructor, is quoted as saying in the December 2009 edition of “Ethos,” the official Naval Special Warfare magazine.
Specialist Second Class Matthew Zarcone, who has operated the ScanEagle for commando missions, told the magazine “you’re providing something that’s going to keep them safe and let them see a target before they get to the door.”
Before drones, commando teams “might go to a target knowing nothing about it other than the picture they saw hours ago and now we are providing a live feed,” Zarcone said. “They can make adjustments on the fly.”
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