Video by Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller 16th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.
The Australian Army’s 131 Battery, 20th Surveillance and Target Acquisition Regiment operates the “Scan Eagle” UAS at multi-national base Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. To support troops on the ground, the 131 Battery, originally from Gallippoli Barracks in Brisbane, Australia, has flown more than 25 thousand hours over Afghanistan so far.
With an endurance of about 12 hours, the Scan Eagle can travel up to 100 kilometers away from the operator, based on line of sight, before being handed off to another operator at a different location. With the Australian UAS footage, the Singaporean Imagery Analysis team, who are also deployed to multi-national base Tarin Kowt, support the UAS team by producing 3-D digital mockups of suspected insurgent compounds as well as tracking patterns of life around the area of operation.
To become a Scan Eagle operator, one must go through a three-month course involving simulations as well as actual test flights at various ranges around Australia. The importance of the 131 Battery’s mission is most evident when ground troops fighting insurgents can’t see over Afghanistan’s rugged terrain. They can watch where insurgents are coming from and to where they are escaping. The Australian Scan Eagle imagery is available to the whole coalition and gets distributed to the units.
Source: YouTube