The UAV revolution

Miniature ‘smart’ UAVs make cost-effective sense for emergency services

Amid the global proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), two local versions stand out – the Insitu Pacific Scan Eagle and the V-TOL Aerospace Warrigal. Their potential in roles supporting search and rescue, and in flood and fire aerial reconnaissance represent a watershed opportunity for emergency services and plans are afoot to accelerate their use locally.

Australia’s first production UAV back in the 1950s and 60s was the Jindivik. More than 500 were built, but were too big and costly for smaller-scale search and rescue (SAR) and surveillance missions, which demand a quality of navigation, control and detection replicating that of their latter-day manned peers.