Air ops: at their best, special operations involve high-value objectives being achieved by small forces in difficult conditions and in the face of numerically superior opponents. Succeeding against the odds depends not only on surprise, superior training and dedication, but also on special equipment and support from a secure rear base.

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Air ops: at their best, special operations involve high-value objectives being achieved by small forces in difficult conditions and in the face of numerically superior opponents. Succeeding against the odds depends not only on surprise, superior training and dedication, but also on special equipment and support from a secure rear base.

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Technological advances are now allowing aerospace assets to make an even greater contribution to special operations, through the advent of mini-, micro- and nano-drones, the development of guided missiles to suit the needs of urban warfare and use from lightweight drones and a new generation of fixed- and rotary-wing manned aircraft.

Hand Launched Drones

The current epitome of special operations drones is the hand-launched backpackable category, weighing around two kilos. Aside from being small and light enough to be taken forward by combat elements, these drones have the advantage of being able to operate virtually unseen below cloud level.

Flown much like model aeroplanes, these hand-launched drones must survive landings on a variety of surfaces. Aerovironment (AV) dominates this class, having delivered over 9000 units to date. Most of its small drones have fixed cameras (with electronic zoom, pan and tilt facilities), since it is felt that a gimballed mounting would suffer in the rough-and-tumble of recovery.

For practical purposes, these small drones derive from the 3.8-kg AV FQM 151 Pointer, which was introduced in the 1991 Gulf War and subsequently acquired by Socom for use in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2003 the US Marine Corps awarded a production contract to AV for the 2.04-kg, twin-motor RQ-14A Dragon Eye, which achieved initial operational capability (IOC) in 2003. The Snake Eye version is used by US Navy Seals. The Special Operations Command (Socom) employs the RQ-14B Swift system, which combines the Dragon Eye with the Raven's ground control station (GCS). Pentagon plans call for 194 Dragon Eye s...

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