ScanEagle

Good capabilities can come in small packages

The recent foray into UAV operations by the RAAF with its 5 Flight IAI Heron deployment at Kandahar in Afghanistan may be the largest unmanned system operated by the ADF to date, but it has drawn heavily on the experience of the Army’s operations with leased Insitu ScanEagles in Iraq and Afghanistan since late 2006.

The ScanEagle is classed as a Tier II unmanned system. The air vehicle has a three metre wing span, an endurance of more than 20 hours, a maximum takeoff weight of about 20kg, and the composite fuselage has detachable nose and forward sections which can accommodate a variety of sensor or communications payloads.