Looking skyward: 20 STA Regt members Lt Tim Walmsley, Capt Il-Kwon Jeong, LBdr Jason Elms and Capt Ryan Maher in the MEAO. Photo by Cpl Mike McSweeney
Safe landing: A UAV is brought to a halt using a purpose-designed system. Photo by Sgt John Carroll
AUSTRALIAN Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have clocked up more than 2000 mission hours in Iraq, keeping an eye out for threats to ADF and coalition personnel.
A seven-man detachment from 20 STA Regt introduced the first Boeing ScanEagle Tier 2 UAV into service with the Australian Army during a busy seven-month deployment with Overwatch Battle Group(West)2.
The team returned last month, but a new detachment continues to provide integrated surveillance, intelligence and target acquisition to OBG(W)3. The Aussie ScanEagles, with their payload of camera equipment, fly day and night over the skies of Dhi Qar and Al Muthanna provinces.
“It’s a situational awareness asset,” Lt Tim Walmsley said of the ScanEagle.
“In the past we were trying to make decisions based on what people were saying over the radio.
“Now commanders are better informed. They can task a UAV to see what’s happening 30km away.
They can actually see what’s happening on the ground and make better decisions so that we get a better result.”
Air Liaison Officer Capt Ryan Maher said the highlight of the recent deployment was introducing the new capability into operational service.
“It was something that we hadn’t even tried or tested back in Australia,” Capt Maher said. “It was firstly deployed on operations, and just seeing that capability develop in the battle group was a tremendous achievement.”
He said that the capability became an integral part of the OBG(W)2 combat teams.
“A lot of the times they wouldn’t go out into the more dangerous areas without UAVs supporting them,” he said.
Commander OBG(W)2 Lt-Col Anthony Rawlins said the ScanEagle was vital to force protection.
“It gave us early warning and the ability to validate information that we would not normally have been able to cross-check,” Lt-Col Rawlins said. “In short, it was absolutely indispensable.”
UAV mission commander LBdr Jason Elms, who went on patrol with the combat teams, said initially everything on the side of the road appeared suspicious.
“After a while you got used to it. Every now and then you would see a car parked on the side of the road and somebody standing around and we would think it was something we might want to look at,” LBdr Elms said.
“We’d inform hierarchy and they’d look on the screen and if they deemed it was nothing then we’d move on.”
“Seeing the combat teams actually happy with what we were providing was good,” LBdr Elms said. “I trained to go to Iraq for about 18 months, so it was good to finally go and do my job.”
The detachment, commanded by Maj Bernard White, consisted of Capt Ryan, LBdr Elms, Lt Brad Archer, WO2 Reece Hay, Sgt Andrew Wallace and Bdr Matthew Malone.
