ScanEagle Conducts First Operational Mission in Dutch Service

A Dutch ScanEagle tactical UAV conducted its first operational mission over the Gulf of Aden on 8 August as part of the counter-piracy operation Ocean Shield.

The air vehicle was launched from the Royal Netherlands Navy LPD, HrMs Rotterdam, which assumed duties as the flagship for the NATO-led operation on 4 August.

ScanEagle is currently deployed on board Rotterdam in its ‘interim-interim’ guise. A single system is operated by an army detachment of 19 personnel from 107 Aerial Systems Battery (ASB) of the Dutch Joint Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition & Reconnaissance Command (JISTARC). The system has been provided by Insitu and is made up of six air vehicles.

Two systems of three Scan Eagle air vehicles are expected to be inducted into Dutch service later this year to form an interim short range, tactical UAV capability. The Insitu RQ-21A, which will enter service with 107 ASB in 2014, has been ordered as a permanent replacement for the Sagem Sperwer that was withdrawn from service on in June 2011.

Five systems will be acquired with the RQ-21A intended to remain in Dutch service for a period of at least ten years.

The RQ-21A small tactical UAS (STUAS) is based on the Integrator design which in turn was derived from ScanEagle itself.

The STUAS programme reached a major milestone on 28 July when the RQ-21A performed its first flight at Insitu’s facilities in eastern Oregon.

The RQ-21A will represent a major improvement over ScanEagle due to its bigger payload. Its reconfigurable payload bay will be able to carry various sensor payloads in addition to its EO/IR camera.

The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO is currently developing a miniature synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor payload with ground moving target indicator (GMTI) function.

Project AWARD (Airborne Wide Area Radar Demonstrator) is meant to assess the potential of SAR/GMTI on tactical UAS such as the RQ-21A. The SAR payload weights only 6 kg, uses up a maximum of 60 W and has demonstrated a 10-15 cm resolution at ranges of up to 5 km.