Photo By Tech. Sgt. Jason Boyd | Soldiers with the 177th Regional Training Institute prepare to launch the Raven UAS...... read more read more
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GRAYLING, Mich. – Until recently, the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) was an afterthought by American citizens, because they were being used on the battlefield over foreign soil.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have been used by law enforcement agencies recently for border patrol surveillance and search and rescue operations. The Federal Aviation Administration allows this use in national airspace after issuing certificates of authorization, but it’s the surveillance capabilities in particular, that have raised concern among civilians.
Law enforcement and private UAV usage has led to civilians fearing their misuse and violations of personal privacy.
UAVs have become a focus of domestic policy as lawmakers consider whether technology opened a Pandora's Box of civil liberties and safety infringements or reflects advancements to protect the lives of American citizens.
While there are UAS that have the capabilities to use facial recognition software and can give the user clear photos that can easily identify people, units, vehicles and locations, they are not being used by the Michigan National Guard.
There are memorandums in place that require unnecessary footage gathered by the Guard to be deleted and no images of civilians are kept.
There are two types of UAS that Michigan National Guard units use, the Raven and Shadow aircraft. The 177th Regional Training Institute (RTI) trains Soldiers how to use the Raven UAS.
Many Michigan Guard units operate the RQ-11B Raven UAS, which weighs about 4.2 pounds, has a flight endurance of 60–90 minutes and an effective operational radius of approximately 6.2 miles.
The Raven is hand-launched into the air like a model airplane. The Raven lands itself by either auto-pilot to a pre-defined landing point and then performing a 45-degree slope (1 foot down for every 1 foot forward) controlled "autoland" descent or it can be manually piloted to a designated landing area. The Raven can provide day or night aerial intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance.
“The RTI uses the Raven for training purposes and we only fly them over our military-allotted air space and the video feed on this aircraft records directly to a laptop. Some of the footage is used in future training courses and any unneeded data is deleted at the end of each course,” said Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Tramel, master trainer with the 177th RTI.”
Detachment 1, Company Bravo, Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 37th Brigade Combat Team uses the RQ-7B Shadow (UAV), and it is used for reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and battle damage assessment. Launched from a trailer-mounted pneumatic catapult, it is recovered with the aid of arresting gear similar to jets on an aircraft carrier. Its gimbal-mounted, digitally stabilized, liquid nitrogen-cooled electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) camera relays video in real time via a C-band line-of-sight data link to the ground control station (GCS).
“The Shadow is capable of a lot of things and can be used to assist in many different tasks, but it doesn’t have the ability to identify a person, or type of unit for that matter. We can tell you where troops are how many there are along with vehicles, but not exactly who they are,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 James Huck, unmanned aircraft systems operations technician with the Detachment 1, Company B, Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 37th Brigade Combat Team.
During training exercises such as Operation Northern Strike, the Shadow is utilized in gathering data such as troop movements, targets and impact zones and sending it to joint terminal attack controllers (JTAC) on the ground.
“The Shadow is used to gather information during field exercises and assist commanders in making training better for the Soldiers and help get them battlefield ready," said Huck.
“There are many uses for the UAS from search and rescue to fire response, however at this time that is not what the Guard is using them for we use UAS for training purpose only. This is an excellent tool for unit commanders to assist in training their Soldiers and at this time that is all we use them for,” said Huck.
For more information, contact Staff Sgt. Jason Boyd at (810) 429-5616.
| Date Taken: | 08.11.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.14.2014 13:26 |
| Story ID: | 139322 |
| Location: | GRAYLING, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 121 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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