EMPLOYEES of a British Columbia firm supplying surveillance drones for the military in Afghanistan will be playing a greater role than first thought in the operations of the system as they pilot the aircraft during takeoffs and landings from Kandahar.
Canadian military personnel, who will be training on the drones in Alberta and Nova Scotia over the coming months, will still handle the more sensitive flying of the unmanned aerial vehicles in seeking out insurgents and collecting intelligence information.
But by having civilian personnel at the helm of the drones during the critical phases of takeoff and landing, the military will be off the financial hook for any crashes such as those that affected another unmanned aerial vehicle, the Sperwer, sent to Afghanistan several years ago.
The Sperwer unmanned aerial vehicles were originally purchased for Canada's 2003 mission in Kabul but were also later sent to Kandahar. The crashes and rough landings which damaged the drones were blamed on a combination of inexperienced military personnel flying the aircraft and the harsh operating conditions in the field.
This time around, MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates of Richmond, B.C., will bear the cost of any accidents on takeoff or landing. The firm is leasing the Israeli-built Heron drone to the Canadian military for a two-year period.
"We wanted to make sure the department's exposure to risk was minimized in every way possible," explained Canadian Forces Lt.-Col. Alex Tupper who is in the air force directorate handling unmanned aerial vehicles. "Having the contractor responsible for the most critical phase of flight was one way to mitigate some of the risks."
-- Canwest News Service
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