Date: 19 November, 2007
Boeing Australia Limited and Insitu, Inc have announced that the ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has provided 5,000 hours of eye-in-the-sky surveillance and reconnaissance services to Australian Army forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"By working together as trusted partners with a common purpose, the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Boeing Australia Limited and Insitu Inc., are delivering life-saving services to Australian soldiers who are on-the-ground risking their lives," said David Withers, president of Boeing Australia Limited. "It is has been extremely rewarding for Boeing to play a key role in establishing the highly-utilised ScanEagle UAV asset as a critical component of the Australian Army's overseas force protection operations.
" The fully autonomous ScanEagle UAV, developed by Boeing and Insitu, Inc., can capture stationary and moving imagery using an inertially stabilised electro-optical or infrared camera. Measuring four feet (1.2 metres) long with a 10-foot (3 metres) wingspan, the UAV provides more than 15 consecutive hours of "on-station" coverage.
It is launched autonomously via Insitu's SuperWedge pneumatic wedge catapult and flies pre-programmed or operator-initiated missions guided by a Global Positioning System. It is retrieved using the SkyHook system in which the UAV catches a rope hanging from a 50-foot (15 metres) high pole.