Drone Provides Overview Of Vast Naval Exercise -- Stars and Stripes
ABOARD THE USS PONCE, Persian Gulf — While drones have gained a controversial reputation for their use in targeting suspected terrorists, the ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) played a very different role during a mine countermeasures exercise in the Persian Gulf: monitoring the 35 participating warships.
Each morning it was the first thing to be launched from the USS Ponce, the 5th Fleet’s staging base for the three-week drill, and the last thing to return every evening.
ScanEagle does not need a runway — it has its own launcher and is recovered using a special sky hook contraption. The man-sized drone is so light it can be carried from the flight deck into the ship by a single person. Built by Boeing subsidiary Insitu, Inc., it was first used operationally nearly a decade ago in Iraq.
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My Comment: I love how they catch the ScanEagle UAV in the above video.